The Feb. 23 article “Ohio not the heart of it all for transplants” tells only part of the story regarding the state of heart transplantation in Ohio.
The focus on the decrease in transplants diminishes the more-important variables of lives saved in Ohio and the organ-donor shortage.
While the overall number of heart transplants has decreased since 2010, the transplant system is trying to decrease the number of deaths in Ohio for patients waiting on the transplant list. Each year from 2010 through 2013, this number has been fewer than four. This is due in part to the extraordinary advances in heart-failure care and other medical advances, such as better medications and cardiac defibrillators.
Another reason fewer people are dying from heart failure is the widespread use of mechanical devices called left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), which were approved in 2009. At Wexner Medical Center, 147 have been implanted, with remarkable improvements in patients’ survival and well-being.
This is mirrored across the country in centers managing advanced heart-failure patients, with LVADs in many cases serving as a way to keep them alive and possibly to allow them to recover from their acute illness to become better heart-transplant candidates — a bridge to transplant.
Countless lives have been saved as part of a comprehensive heart-failure program, where advanced medical therapies, medications, devices and, yes, transplants are an option.
This part of the story needs to be told to encourage these programs to continue to improve heart-failure care and save lives while waiting for a lifesaving donor heart.
The real emphasis should be on increasing the number of organ donors in Ohio, so we can continue to save lives.
DR. ROBERT HIGGINS
Comprehensive Transplant Center
Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center