No decrease for heart transplants at UW Health during pandemic

Nine transplants were performed from mid-March to mid-May

MADISON, Wis. (WKBT) – UW Health is not seeing a decrease in heart transplants during the pandemic.

That is going against a national trend as hospitals across the U.S. are preforming fewer procedures.

Between mid-March and mid-May, UW Health surgeons performed nine heart transplants and added an additional 10 people to the heart transplant waiting list.

Doctors say that many factors made that possible.

“Our ICU was never full with COVID patients. That’s one aspect of it. We as an institution were very well placed to handle the COVID-19,” said UW Health D.r Amy Fiedler.

The average time for UW Health patients on the heart transplant waiting list decreased from 51 days during the first six months of 2019 to just 11 days for the first 6 months of 2020.

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