Record Pediatric heart And liver Transplants Spotlight Urgent Need For Donors
USA: Families, clinicians and transplant patients gathered in Utah this week to underscore the national shortage of organs for children, as more than 2,000 young patients across the country remain on waiting lists for life-saving transplants. The event put pediatric transplantation at the center of the conversation, highlighting how one donor can change a child’s trajectory.
Speakers and families shared recent successes from Primary children‘s Hospital, where a living donor liver transplantation in December 2025 helped a 10-month-old infant recover from a rare condition for which transplant was the only option. Another child who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome received a heart transplant at the center in 2024 and is now thriving after surgery. Those stories illustrated both the fragility and the resilience of children facing organ failure.
Primary children‘s transplant program is the only pediatric transplant center in the Intermountain West offering heart, liver, kidney and bone marrow transplantation, and clinicians said the program had a record year in 2025, performing 18 pediatric heart transplants and 21 pediatric liver transplants. Staff described the milestones as fuel to expand care, referral networks and donor outreach across the region and beyond.
As Organ Donation Month approaches in April, clinicians and families urged more people to register as organ donors and to consider the impact of living donation, noting that the procurement of one living-donor liver saved an infant’s life. Organ procurement organizations and transplant teams say increased registration and public awareness are critical to closing the gap for children who need transplants.
Video originally published on 2026-03-23 20:36:52
