Teen Receives the Gift of Life

An 18-year-old patient recently received the gift of life at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas – the center’s first heart transplant surgery. The patient, who was in the end stage of heart failure and suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, is recovering well after pediatric heart transplant surgeons implanted a donor heart. “This is a new era at Dell Children’s. A heart transplant is the first of many solid organ transplant procedures Dell Children’s will offer in the future as we continue to build a world-class program that expands the breadth and depth of our expertise to meet the needs of all pediatric patients in Central Texas and beyond,” said Dr. Charles Fraser, Pediatrix-affiliated pediatric cardiologist and chief of Pediatric and Congenital Surgery for UT Health Austin’s Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease at Dell Children’s. “Giving the gift of organ or tissue is such a transformational gift, and this life-saving surgery would not have been possible without the generous and courageous family who chose to donate life.”

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