Stanford Performs Rare Transplant

Stanford Health Care has performed a rare heart-lung-heart “domino” transplant last month, hospital officials said this week.

The procedure transplanted a new heart and lungs into a patient the hospital identified as Tammy Griffin. Her heart was subsequently transplanted into another patient, Linda Karr. Griffin has suffered from cystic fibrosis since she was an infant. Karr suffers from right ventricular dysplasia, which causes an abnormal heart rhythm.

Griffin's medical condition allowed the transplantation of a new pair of lungs, but her healthy heart would also have to be removed and replaced. She received a heart from a deceased donor.

"Her heart was an innocent bystander pushed out of its normal position in the middle of the lungs as her right lung shrank and the left one expanded," said Joseph Woo, M.D., a cardiothoracic surgeon at Stanford Health Care who oversaw and coordinated the surgical teams that conducted the procedure. 

According to Stanford officials, it was only the ninth domino procedure performed at the hospital in the past 22 years. 

“The extraordinary work of Dr. Woo and his team demonstrates the very best of an academic medical center—where our research informs the development of revolutionary treatments like the domino procedure, which we then use to save the lives of our patients,” said Stanford Medicine Dean Lloyd Minor, M.D.

On March 17, Griffin met with Karr and availed herself of the extremely rare opportunity to hear her heart beating in the chest of another person.

"This story highlights how scarce organs are today," Woo said. "People are waiting and dying on those transplant lists. We would like to see that change."