It was a natural next step.

 

Florida Hospital already had the well-renowned Florida Hospital Cardiovascular Institute in place, a 40-year old establishment with more than 100 Florida Hospital cardiologists treating nearly 35,000 patients suffering from chest pain annually. Cardiovascular surgeons perform some 1,600 cardiac procedures every year.

 

The Florida Hospital Transplant Center had been the locale of Central Florida’s first kidney transplant, performed more than 35 years ago. The Orlando area’s only transplant facility had progressed to replacing multiple organs, including the pancreas and liver. 

 

When it made sense to add the more challenging organ—the heart—Florida Hospital leaders began taking the necessary steps to make it happen: secure a certificate of need from the state, and recruit two world-class physicians to the team. Check, check.

 

Florida Hospital secured a certificate of need for the addition of hearts to the transplantation list in 2008, and brought onboard cardiologist Barbara Czerska, MD, as medical director of Advanced Heart Failure, Cardiac Transplant and Circulatory Assist Device Programs in late 2009, and transplant surgeon Lawrence McBride, MD, as surgical director of Advanced Heart Failure, Cardiac Transplant and Circulatory Assist Device Programs earlier this year.

 

Approval is anticipated this month from the nonprofit United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), the contractor for the national Organ Procurement Transplantation Network (OPTN) as the final step toward performing the area’s first heart transplant.

 

“We’re now on the fast track to performing our area’s first heart transplant, and have already started to evaluate patients for heart transplantation,” said McBride. “We could begin very quickly, and anticipate listing patients in May. Then, it’s only a question of when a heart becomes available—days, weeks, maybe months.”

 

A long wait for the inaugural heart transplant isn’t anticipated, based on donor activity in Central Florida. Florida Hospital has a very active organ procurement organization via TransLife Family Services. UNOS identifies medical matches for TransLife from the nearly 100,000 children and adults registered on the national transplant waiting list. Every year, more than 28,000 lives are saved by organ transplants.

 

When the heart transplant program is operational, UNOS and CMS require at least 10 heart transplants to be done within the first year.

 

“Is it possible here? Yes. Based on research, we’re sending at least 30 patients a year outside Orlando for cardiac transplantation,” said Czerska (pronounced church-ka), whose role involves supporting McBride and preparing potential transplant patients to receive a heart when it becomes available. “Hopefully, we can do 20 a year.”

 

Florida Hospital leaders believed it was vital for the Central Florida community to have a heart transplant program close to home, because it enables patients requiring a heart transplant to have that surgery performed near family and friends, so they don’t have to commute long distances to be close to heart transplant experts during the extended recovery process.

 

“Heart transplant patients need to be near their loved ones during this time, physically and emotionally,” said Czerska.

 

Florida Hospital provides support long after transplant patients have gone home. On a sunny afternoon last month, more than 500 transplant patients, organ donors and doctors gathered at Orlando Cultural Park. The second reunion of its kind “was a great opportunity for family and friends to come together and celebrate the success of those who had received or given organs,” said transplant surgeon Michael Angelis, MD. “It’s important for these families to gather as a community and share their experiences.” 

 

Adding heart transplant to the list of organ transplant services at Florida Hospital is also good for the local economy, increasing Orlando’s draw as a medical destination, said Ray Gilley, CEO of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission.

 

“When medical and science institutions consider relocating their businesses to Orlando, they look for this type of access to complex procedures like heart transplant,” he pointed out. “At the EDC, we’re so proud to see this heart transplant service being offered in our community.”

 

Next up: adding lung transplantation to the list.

 

“We’re in the process of recruiting a transplant pulmonologist, and building on the existing infrastructure,” said McBride. “There’s a big overlay between cardiac and lung transplantation. We’re hoping to become a center for thoracic transplantation and a leader in this field. With the institution’s tremendously impressive commitment to the Orlando community, Central Florida is becoming the destination center for healthcare in the southeast.”