First Transplants at The Queen's Medical Center Celebrated

For some people, getting an organ transplant within a few weeks could mean the difference between life and death. Such was the case with a Hawaii Medical Center patient who needed a liver transplant late last year. In November of 2011, he became the last patient to get a transplant before both HMC hospitals closed their doors, ending a program begun by St. Francis Medical Center over four decades ago. 

But there were others on the list. Transplant surgeon Linda Wong, MD, and other transplant staff joined with the staff of The Queen's Medical Center to rebuild the organ transplant program at Queen's in 82 days. "This is about a team of people, experienced and inexperienced in transplantation, coming together to rebuild a transplant program for a community," said Dr. Wong. "When Queen's stepped up to carry on the organ transplantation program in Hawaii, it ushered in a new era in transplant services for the state." 

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the national approval organization for organ transplantation, approved Queen's application to perform liver transplants on January 25, 2012. Requests to perform kidney, pancreas, and heart transplants are still under review by UNOS. Queen's has hired 16 employees to support the Queen's Transplant Center. A celebration was held at Queen's—"a celebration of life and second chances with the gift of life," as Dr. Wong put it.

The Queen's Medical Center Among 1st to Use Revolutionary Heart Procedure

The Queen's Medical Center has been selected as the first and only hospital in Hawaii to offer a new non-surgical treatment for aortic stenosis, or the narrowing of the heart valves. The treatment will be available to select patients who are not candidates for open heart surgery. Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on November 2, 2011, the new treatment allows replacement of the aortic heart valve via a catheter inserted into an artery in the groin. The minimally invasive procedure, called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR), which uses the SAPIEN heart valve from Edwards Lifesciences, has been approved at only a limited number of selected medical centers across the nation. As a selected site, Queen's Heart has also partnered with other Hawaii cardiac surgeons and cardiologists to form the Pacific Valve Consortium, which will help identify and treat Hawaii patients who can benefit from TAVR. "Queen's Heart, in collaboration with the Pacific Valve Consortium, is among the first in the nation chosen to use this new technology outside of earlier research trials," said Art Ushijima, QHS/QMC President.

Once the symptoms of aortic stenosis develop, the prognosis for a patient is poor, and the probability of death within two years is greater than 50%. Symptoms of severe aortic stenosis usually include chest pain, fainting, and shortness of breath. Patients can also experience fatigue, heart palpitations, and other symptoms, and the heart-weakening effects of the disease often leads to heart failure. With an aging population, over 100,000 people in the United States live with significant aortic stenosis. However, surgery is not an options for a large group of these patients because they are too fragile for open heart surgery. In Hawaii, 400 to 500 people a year are diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis.