St. Luke's Hospital discharges first heart transplant patient

Friday, April 06, 2001

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., April 6, 2001 — Maxwell Matthews, the first patient to undergo a heart transplant at Mayo Clinic/St. Luke's Hospital, was discharged from the hospital today. Matthews, a 57-year-old Jacksonville man, was admitted to St. Luke's on Jan. 26. He was successfully supported by artificial heart pumps for several weeks and underwent heart transplantation on March 13.

Matthews was suffering from severe congestive heart failure secondary to end-stage coronary artery disease. He was referred to the heart transplant program by a local cardiologist when transplantation became his only treatment option. His heart failure had progressed to the point that his lungs, liver and kidneys were failing, and he would not survive until a donor heart became available.

The Mayo team, comprised of Dr. Lawrence McBride, surgical director; Dr. Daniel Yip, medical director; and Dr. Octavio Pajaro, transplant surgeon, determined that Matthews' body needed time to recover from the cumulative effects of heart failure before he could be transplanted. "The patient would not survive long enough for a donor heart to become available," McBride says, "so we used artificial pumps to buy time."

On Jan. 29, the surgical team implanted right and left mechanical ventricular assist devices (VADs) in Matthews' chest to help his heart pump blood while waiting for a donor organ. Mayo Clinic/St. Luke's Hospital is the only medical center in Northeast Florida to offer implantation of long-term VADs.

"The artificial heart pumps improved blood flow to damaged organs," says Yip. "This allowed the team to rehabilitate Mr. Matthews to the point that he could be transplanted." On March 13, a donor heart was made available to Matthews, and he underwent successful transplantation.

The Mayo Clinic/St. Luke's Hospital heart transplant program is actively listing patients for heart transplantation and has another patient awaiting a new heart who has been put on VADs. The heart transplant program is the latest organ transplant program operated by Mayo Clinic/St. Luke's Hospital. The bone marrow transplant program began in 1992; a liver transplant program in 1998; and last year, both kidney and pancreas transplant programs began. Mayo plans to begin its lung transplant program this spring.

Each year, the number of Americans waiting for a heart transplant exceeds the number of organs donated. In 1999 there were 2,182 heart transplants performed nationwide, yet there were nearly twice as many people waiting for a heart on the national (United Network for Organ Sharing) waiting list. These people suffer from conditions that irreversibly damage the heart, such as cardiomyopathy, valvular heart disease and coronary artery disease.

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Media contact: Erik Kaldor 904-953-2299 kaldor.erik@mayo.edu

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