Monica McFarlane Survives Groundbreaking heart-After-liver transplant, First In Georgia
USA: In a rare and high-stakes operation at Emory, surgeons performed a heart-after-liver transplantation that has given a local mother a renewed lease on life after 15 years of progressive heart failure. Monica McFarlane had been on nine daily medications and had been told her immune profile made her ineligible for a conventional heart transplant; physicians warned she had only days to weeks and her family was preparing for the worst before the new strategy was offered.
The procedure, known as HALT — a liver transplant followed immediately by a heart transplant from the same donor — was chosen because the implanted liver can absorb destructive antibodies and protect the incoming heart from rejection. The team at Emory described the operation as extraordinary; the dual-organ surgery spanned roughly 16 hours and the patient has been recovering for about three months. Dr. Victor Pretorius characterized the undertaking as an innovative, carefully coordinated effort to overcome immunologic barriers.
Recovery has been intense but transformative: McFarlane reports fewer limitations, renewed ability to laugh and plan for the future, and ongoing medication management and side effects including shaking. Physicians note that the success demonstrates how transplantation strategies can be adapted for patients previously deemed ineligible. Because the transplant used both organs from the same donor, clinicians emphasize that when a recipient’s liver is healthy enough it can potentially be allocated to another person in need, amplifying the benefit of a single donor.
Clinicians at Emory say this was the first time the HALT approach has been performed in Georgia and only the second time in the United States, and they hope the result will broaden options for patients who have been told they have no remaining pathways to transplantation. The team sees this as a potential model to protect donor hearts from rejection and expand life-saving possibilities for others.
Video originally published on 2026-02-24 16:52:23
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