Twenty-seven years ago, Baptist Health was the first hospital in the state to perform a heart transplant and recently celebrated the life-giving milestone of transplanting the 250th heart since the transplant program began in 1989.
Brittany Dow, 33, of Little Rock, received the 250th heart on Sunday, Oct. 2. She was listed in serious condition, which is to be expected at this time, at Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock (BHMC-LR).
Dow was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and was on the transplant waiting list for 31 days.
The Baptist Health Heart Transplant Program is a part of the Baptist Health Heart Failure and Transplant Institute. This program provides a central location for patients who have had an organ transplant or are awaiting a transplant to be evaluated in the most timely and comfortable manner. The comprehensive unit helps keep patients from having to leave the state in order to get a new heart.
The team at Baptist Health has had a long tradition of caring for some of the most medically compromised patients. The success rates for transplants at Baptist Health are equal to, and in most cases exceed, the national averages as reported by the United Network for Organ Sharing.