![\"Hearts25_internet\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/files\/2013\/10\/Hearts25_internet.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nYoung transplant recipients wore their hearts on their sleeves at the hospital this morning to thank the RCH clinicians past and present who gave them another chance at life.<\/p>\n
Since its establishment in 1988, the RCH Heart Transplant Service<\/a> has performed transplants for 116 patients, enhancing the lives of neonates through to young adults suffering end stage heart failure.<\/p>\n The first transplant was performed on a 14-year-old boy on 5 October 1988. The operation required the collaboration of a large and dedicated team of clinicians, including then Director of Cardiology Jim Wilkinson and Director of Cardiac Surgery Roger Mee, both of whom attended this morning\u2019s celebration.<\/p>\n At that time, heart transplantation was regarded as pioneering treatment. There was no local adult heart transplant service with which to share experience, knowledge about how to handle rejection was limited, and there were fewer medications available to prevent and manage complications.<\/p>\n Today, the team is no smaller and just as dedicated. Each heart transplant patient will receive care from cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, perfusionists, theatre nurses, theatre technicians, cardiac anaesthetists, transplant coordinators, intensive care nurses, ward nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and many other supporting services.<\/p>\n The RCH is the Nationally Funded Centre <\/a>for paediatric heart transplantation \u2013 a status granted in 1991 by the Commonwealth Government \u2013 and patients come from all Australian states and territories. The RCH is also a Nationally Funded Centre for lung and liver transplantation in children, and for the surgical treatment of hypoplastic left heart syndrome.<\/p>\n Dr Robert Weintraub<\/a>, cardiologist who manages the RCH Heart Transplant Service, said the service remains at the forefront of care among international transplant centres.<\/p>\n \u201cOur survival rates equal those of the world\u2019s largest heart transplant centres and that\u2019s a testament to the skill, commitment and enthusiasm of our entire team,\u201d Dr Weintraub said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also collaborate with the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute <\/a>and transplant centres across the United States on research programs to better understand diseases that might one day require transplantation and to improve outcomes for patients globally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Over the years, the service has embraced new technologies and procedures to improve patient eligibility for heart transplantation and achieve better clinical results.<\/p>\n In 1988 the RCH performed Australia\u2019s first heart-lung transplant. This program has evolved into the Nationally Funded Centre lung transplant service shared with the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.<\/p>\n