Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant

The Pediatric Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant team at Children's of Alabama cares for children suffering from end-stage heart failure and brings extensive experience to children with advanced heart disease. The program completed nearly 200 pediatric heart transplants from 1981 to 2012 and has maintained survival rates well above expected levels. The Benjamin Russell Hospital for Children and Bruno Pediatric Cardiac Unit opened in 2012 at Children’s of Alabama to offer a modern facility and provide a multi-disciplinary, family-centered and compassionate approach to care. Since 2012, Children’s of Alabama has performed 76 heart transplants. Our transplant team is made up of cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiologists, cardiac intensive care specialists, transplant infectious disease specialists, cardiac nurse practitioners, cardiac transplant coordinators, cardiac pharmacists, counselors, child life specialists, science researchers and statisticians, and many other professionals representing a wide range of dedicated pediatric disciplines. This multidisciplinary approach combines compassion with scientific and technical expertise to provide care to children with advanced heart failure.

Diagnosis Treated

• Heart
• Congenital Heart Disease
• Cardiomyopathy
• Myocarditis
• Heart Failure
• Valvular Heart Disease
• Other Cardiac Diseases
• Retransplantation / Graft Failure
• Clinical decline,  structural failure or poor quality of life with conventional heart failure treatment
• Heart Transplant Follow-up
• Advanced management: 
• Mechanical Circulatory Support Device Therapy
  • Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO)
  • Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD)
  • Right Ventricular Assist Device (RVAD)
  • Bi-ventricular Assist Device (BiVAD)
• Photopheresis
   

Resources

Preparing for a Heart Transplant
https://youtu.be/thtD9E0jiHo 

Caring for a New Heart
https://youtu.be/_Rn5F1fMdiM 

Physicians

Robert J. Dabal, MD - Surgical Director
Waldemar F. Carlo, MD - Medical Director
Robert Sorabella, MD - Surgeon
W. Hampton Gray, MD - Surgeon
F. Bennett Pearce, MD - Cardiologist
Leslie Collins, MD - Cardiologist

Advanced Practice Coordinators

Meloneysa Hubbard, MSN, CRNP, CCTC - Transplant Administrator
Mariah Trowbridge, MSN, CRPN, CCTC
Kimberly Sullivan, MSN, CRNP, CCTC
Amanda Pearson, MSN, CRNP