Patient given a new lease on life at Emory University Hospital

Terry Green of Lawrenceville, Georgia, has a lot to celebrate and so does Emory University Hospital. Green was literally “reborn” at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta – once 61 years ago on March 20, 1947, and again as a result of a new heart he received there – the hospital’s 500th adult heart transplant.

“It’s a very special feeling to have a new chance at life because of my heart transplant, and the fact that I am also the 500th person to receive a new heart at Emory is extra special,” says Green, who refers to himself as “Mr. 500,” and is now making some long-term plans.

This year, Emory is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of its heart transplant program. Since 1988, Emory Clinic cardiothoracic surgeons have performed 502 adult heart transplants and more than 200 pediatric heart transplants.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Mr. Green’s story and to reflect on two decades of transplanting hearts and saving the lives of many people,” says David Vega, MD, surgical director of the Emory Heart Transplant Program. “It is also an opportunity to look toward the future of heart transplantation at Emory and beyond, and the research, science and global awareness of the important need for transplants that will help us save many more lives in the future.”

Green, who had been on a waiting list for a heart since March 2007, says: “I had been in the hospital for a number of weeks because my heart was weakening quickly. One night, a nurse gave me the phone and I was told to get ready, a heart was on the way.”

The Heart Transplant Program started at Emory University Hospital in 1985 when the hospital performed the first heart transplant in Georgia. Today, Emory’s patient survival rates are among the best in the country. Emory’s surgeons perform an average of 23 adult heart transplants each year and have a one-year post-transplant survival rate of 91.49 percent (The U.S. average is 87.87 percent). The hospital’s one-month patient survival rate is 97.87 percent (U.S. average is 95.04 percent). So far in 2008, EUH has performed six heart transplants.

Emory’s transplant program has an experienced multidisciplinary team, which includes cardiologists, transplant surgeons, transplant coordinators, a social worker, psychiatrist, psychiatric clinical nurse specialist, pharmacist, clinical nutritionist, physical therapist, chaplain, staff nurses and a financial coordinator – dedicated to the care of heart transplant candidates and recipients.

Emory’s heart transplant program consistently ranks among the leading programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

In addition to heart transplantation, Emory University Hospital surgeons are experienced with implanting artificial heart pumps, also known as ventricular assist devices (VADs). These devices can be used as a bridge to transplant if a suitable donor is not available for urgent transplantation or as a destination therapy when transplantation is not possible.

Emory University Hospital is one of only 48 sites in the U.S. and Canada enrolling people in the HeartMate II Clinical Trial for destination therapy, which offers an alternative treatment option to selected patients who are not suitable candidates for transplantation. With the combined strength of the medical and surgical cardiac teams, heart failure, heart transplant and VAD patients get the most innovative and sophisticated care that can be provided nationally or internationally.

The Emory Center for Heart Failure Therapy provides state-of-the-art evaluation and management for adult patients with heart failure across the entire spectrum and at all stages of the disease. By educating patients and their families about heart disease and ways in which they can take better care of themselves at home, Emory has been successful at improving patients’ quality of life and reducing the need for repeated long-term hospital stays.