Children’s Hospital Colorado Performs First Combined Heart And Liver Transplant, One Of Just 37 Pediatric Cases Ever

11-Year-Old From Fort Collins Survives Rare Combined heart And liver transplant

USA: An 11-year-old girl from Fort Collins, Gracie Greenlaw, has returned home after spending months hospitalized and undergoing an extraordinary combined heart and liver transplantation at children’s Hospital Colorado. Born with a congenital heart defect that required multiple open-heart operations and ultimately led to liver failure, Gracie was placed on simultaneous heart and liver waiting lists and, after less than a month, a compatible donor was identified.

Surgeons and a multidisciplinary team of more than 100 hospital staff conducted the complex operation, the first combined heart‑liver transplant performed at children’s Hospital Colorado. During the lengthy procedure, a specialized machine circulated blood through the newly arrived liver while the heart transplant was completed, and the liver transplantation followed soon after. Medical leaders described the case as exceptionally rare — one of only 37 pediatric combined heart‑liver transplantations ever performed in the United States — and reported a successful outcome that allowed the patient to recover and leave the hospital.

Gracie’s family and care team expressed profound gratitude to the donor family, who authorized organ procurement and thereby enabled the lifesaving grafts. The case underscores both advances in pediatric transplantation and the coordinated effort required from surgeons, nurses, perfusionists, and support staff. Now home in Fort Collins, Gracie is resuming typical childhood activities and daily routines after a long medical journey, illustrating how complex transplantation can restore quality of life for children facing multi‑organ failure.

The operation highlights the rarity and technical demands of combined organ transplantation in pediatrics and the ongoing dependence on donor authorization to save lives. Medical teams say continued innovation and public awareness of organ donation remain critical to giving other children similar chances at recovery.

Video originally published on 2026-02-02 19:28:01