Tufts Medical Center completes 4 heart transplants in 24 hours
Tufts Medical Center performs the most heart transplants in New England, but last month, the hospital hit a new milestone: It completed four heart transplants in one day, according to The Boston Globe.
Tufts hospital officials told the Globe each of the four transplants completed on June 15 had its own dedicated team, and that all other cardiac surgeries scheduled that day were canceled to make room for the four transplants.
“It’s not ideal and it stresses the system to the max,” Dr. Frederick Chen, chief of cardiac surgery at Tufts, told the Globe.
But when there is heart available for a transplant—and Tufts has more patients on the transplant list than any other New England hospital, with 122 people as of June 24—Chen told the Globe it’s “the hospital’s duty” to make it happen.
The list of potential transplant recipients is organized in order of severity, so a hospital needs to be ready to accept a donation or the organ will go to the next most needing patient. Hearts can only sit on ice for four or five hours at most, Chen said.
Read the full story at the Globe.
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