Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Renowned Texas Heart Transplant Program Suspends Operations

June 4, 2018 By Associated Press

A Houston hospital has suspended all medical procedures in its renowned heart transplant program following the deaths this year of at least three patients and the departure of several senior physicians.

Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center said Friday that the transplant program will be inactive for 14 days as administrators assess what’s gone awry.

The decision follows a series of joint reports by the Houston Chronicle and ProPublica revealing an unusually high number of patient deaths in recent years.

The program’s inactive status means it will turn away all donor hearts during the suspension.

“Although extensive reviews are conducted on each unsuccessful transplant, the recent patient outcomes deserve an in-depth review before we move forward with the program,” Doug Lawson, CEO of Catholic Health Initiatives Texas Division, which owns St. Luke’s, said in a statement. “Our prayers are with the families, as well as all those on the waiting list.”

The decision punctuates a dramatic fall for one of the nation’s most respected heart transplant programs. It was at St. Luke’s that famed surgeon Denton Cooley performed some of the world’s first heart transplants back in the 1960s.

But staffers have recently raised concerns to hospital leaders about the program’s direction under Dr. Jeffrey Morgan, its surgical director since 2016, according to the Chronicle and ProPublica. Morgan did not respond to requests for comment.

Some St. Luke’s cardiologists grew so troubled by the program’s direction in 2016 that they referred some patients to other hospitals for transplants.

Officials at St. Luke’s and its affiliated Baylor College of Medicine have defended the program for weeks, saying they made improvements after a string of patient deaths in 2015. Officials said the program’s one-year survival rate after heart transplants had reached 94 percent in 2016 and 2017.

But of nine patients who received heart transplants at St. Luke’s since the start of 2018, at least three have died, according to interviews with patients’ family members, information provided by the hospital and data from the United Network for Organ Sharing.

James “Lee” Lewis, a 52-year-old pipefitter from Bay City, Texas, received a transplant on Jan. 2. Operating room equipment malfunctioned during surgery, and the donor heart failed. He died nearly three months later after undergoing more than a dozen operations and suffering numerous complications.

His wife, Jennifer, chronicled her husband’s transplant and drawn-out death on Facebook.

“I’m glad they are doing something,” she said Friday. “That was my hope in speaking out and telling Lee’s story.”

Main image: This Friday, June 1, 2018 photo shows Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston. Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center has suspended all medical procedures in its renowned heart transplant program following the deaths this year of at least three patients. Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center announced Friday, June 1, 2018 that the transplant program will be inactive for 14 days as administrators assess what’s gone awry with operations. (Jon Shapely/Houston Chronicle via AP)

Related Articles Read More >

Lazurite ArthroFree wireless surgical camera system Minnetronix Medical
How Minnetronix Medical helped Lazurite with its wireless surgical camera
Medtronic Hugo robot-assisted surgery system
The road to a robot: Medtronic’s development process for its Hugo RAS system
A portrait of Stryker executive Siddarth Satish
How Stryker includes users for product design in the digital age
A portrait of Stryker executive Tracy Robertson
Stryker leaders talk medtech trends at DeviceTalks Boston: ‘If you’re slow, you’re going to lose’

DeviceTalks Weekly.

May 20, 2022
DeviceTalks Boston Post-Game – Editors’ Top Moments, Insulet’s Eric Benjamin on future of Omnipod 5
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech