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The heart transplant program at Indiana University School of Medicine was developed by Jacqueline O'Donnell, M.D. and her team with the first heart transplant performed on June 1, 1986. The program continues to achieve excellent outcomes and patient volumes.
Under Dr. O'Donnell's leadership, our multidisciplinary team provides comprehensive care to the patients, both in the evaluation, pre-transplant and post-transplant phases. As a full-service transplant center, we are able to offer a wide range of services, including subspecialists with expertise in transplant patient complications.
To date, 250 heart transplant procedures have been done with excellent survival rates. The one-year survival for patients transplanted in 2002-2003 was 92.57% which was better than the expected survival of 87.9%.
Overall, our patients' waiting time on the list is substantially lower at the Clarian Transplant Center when compared to the region or nationally. The wait time may be longer for certain blood types, however. The median time to transplant was 6.6 months at Clarian while nationally the waiting time for a heart transplant was 10 months.
We strive to return each patient to a self-sufficient, active and productive life. We appreciate and encourage early patient referrals to achieve the optimal treatment program, individualized to each patient that might include cardiac transplantation.
