Transplant Patients, Donor Families, and Caregivers to Join Together on Tuesday for Ceremony to Honor Organ Donors and Celebrate Utah Medical Milestone: 600th Life-Saving Transplant by Intermountain Heart Transplant Team

Intermountain Health caregivers, heart transplant recipients, and families of organ donors gathered on Tuesday at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray to honor organ donors whose donations made life possible for others – and celebrate a Utah medical milestone for one of the most successful cardiac transplant programs in the nation. 

The Intermountain Health Heart Transplant Program has achieved a major medical milestone – performing the program’s 600th adult life-saving heart transplant and marking its 38th anniversary as one of the top cardiovascular transplant programs in the country. 

Surgeons and caregivers say the milestone is exciting for the program, but recognize the real heroes are donors and their families whose gift make organ transplantation possible. 

Over the past 38 years, the Intermountain Heart Transplant Program has grown into a national model and is recognized as a center of excellence with high-quality outcomes and excellent survival rates post-transplant, which are among the highest in the nation.

Dozens of heart transplant patients, donor families, surgeons, and other caregivers gathered together on Tuesday, as they honored organ donors and celebrated the medical milestone of more than 600 life-saving heart transplants. 

“600 transplants are an important medical milestone to the community and an opportunity for all of us to celebrate and thank the donor families who offered the generous gift of donation when they lost their loved one,” said Rami Alharethi, MD, medical director of the Intermountain Heart Transplant and Artificial Heart Program at Intermountain Medical Center. “This milestone is also a terrific testament to the great team we have, including the patient who is at the center.”

Intermountain transplant surgeons William Caine, MD, and John Doty, MD, performed the 600th Intermountain Health adult heart transplant. Intermountain surgeons have subsequently performed their 608th heart transplant.

“It takes a lot of thoughtful, meticulous, long-term decisions by a lot of caring providers, clinicians, and multi-disciplinary team members to get to this point in a program,” said Bruce Reid, MD, heart transplant surgical director for Intermountain Health. “Our team truly cares about the individuals they partner with on this journey.”

The Intermountain Health Adult Heart Transplant Program began at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City in 1985 and moved to the new Intermountain Medical Center campus when it opened in 2007.

Over the past 38 years, the program has grown into a national model and is recognized as a center of excellence with high-quality outcomes and excellent survival rates post-transplant, which are among the highest in the nation.

Other highlights of the Intermountain Health adult heart transplant program, include: 

• In 2022, Intermountain performed 29 heart transplants, a record number for the program, and followed another 284 patients for heart transplants. More than 260 heart transplant recipients receive ongoing graft surveillance and immunosuppression management from clinicians with specialized transplant training. 
• For the third consecutive year in 2023, Fortune Magazine and PINC AI, a national healthcare quality firm, named Intermountain Medical Center one of the nation’s top 50 cardiovascular hospitals.
• Intermountain Medical Center was also ranked as the 10th leading teaching heart hospital in the nation in Fortune’s Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospitals study, which identified hospitals throughout the United States that demonstrated the highest clinical and operational performance in heart and vascular care.
• Intermountain has five board-certified advanced heart failure transplant cardiologists who provide specialized care for several thousand patients each year with advanced heart failure. The heart transplant program at Intermountain Medical Center is a national leader in extending lives, conducting critically important research, and testing and researching new cardiovascular support devices. 

Intermountain’s heart transplant program is also a national leader in extending lives, conducting critically important research, and testing and researching new cardiovascular support devices. 

It’s one of a few elite programs across the country that implants total artificial hearts, mechanical devices that replace the native heart entirely rather than just assist it, while the patient awaits a transplant. 

Here are just some of the lives changed by the Intermountain heart transplant program because a family said, “yes” to organ donation:

--Jessica Leon, 35, Syracuse, Utah: “I never met my hero, but he lives in me now,” said Jessica Leon, who received a new heart on April 28, 2023. She had been at Intermountain Medical Center for 81 days waiting for a heart due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is a condition affecting the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart. Over time, the heart can’t take in or pump out enough blood during each heartbeat to supply the body’s needs. 

“It’s not that you’re hoping or wishing someone loses, their life – you’re just hoping there is a match,” said Leon.

She says she talks to her new heart, promising to take care of it. 

Just 23 days after receiving her new heart she went hiking and this summer she says she’s taking her daughters swimming and will cherish every happy memory she gets to create with them, thanks to her donor hero and her donor’s family. 

--Tyler Larsen, 37, Draper, Utah: Heart transplants are not new to Tyler Larsen and his family. His uncle, his mom and his sister have all needed the life-saving gift of a new heart. 

In fact, his mom needed two. Although he’s been living with his genetic condition for many years, he says he never let it control his life and says he lived life to the fullest, but this past year things felt off for the first time and the time came for his new heart. 

On June 3, 2023, Larsen became a member of Intermountain’s 600 heart transplant club. 

The father of five says he has a lot of life to continue living and just the third day after transplant he was walking a mile around Intermountain Medical Center hallways and try to convince his caregivers to go home. His doctors cleared him to go home after 10 days. 

He says he’s still going 100 mph and his wife can’t keep up with up. He’s got a goal to continue hiking and hunting that he hopes to fulfill this next year.

--Brent Haupt, 72, Herriman, Utah: Haupt was Intermountain’s first patient in 2015 on the Total Artificial Heart Freedom Portable Driver, a smaller, lighter controller for the total artificial heart that provides increased mobility for patients. 

After six months with the artificial heart, Haupt’s waiting came to an end when a donor's heart became available. Then after just a week of getting used to his new heart, he left the hospital. Just three days later – perhaps sooner than his doctors would have liked - he was back at work.

Almost eight years later Haupt says he feels younger than ever.

“I may be 72 according to the calendar, but I feel 10 to 15 years younger,” said Haupt. “I do everything I used to do and more.”

That ‘and more’ includes, motorcycle riding, competitive target shooting, traveling, working in the yard, and running a heart failure support group.

He reminds Intermountain heart patients when diagnosed with heart failure that their family gets a lot bigger.

“Being part of these amazing transplant journeys is rewarding,” said Dr. Alharethi. “What gives our team the most satisfaction is seeing our transplant patients, like Jessica, Tyler, and Brent, go on and lead productive, long, and happy lives.”

The Intermountain Health heart transplant program is unique from other programs across the country as it’s part of the UTAH (Utah Transplant Affiliated Hospitals) Cardiac Transplant Program, which is often cited as a collaborative model for other heart transplant programs throughout the nation.

UTAH Cardiac is a unique cooperative effort between four Salt Lake City-area hospitals that work together to leverage resources, skills, and clinical expertise, helping to contain costs by eliminating duplication while maintaining a high standard of care. 

Every patient awaiting transplant is reviewed by the UTAH Cardiac team, ensuring donor's hearts are matched with the most appropriate recipients, even for the most-difficult organ matches.

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