A groundbreaking moment in Canadian healthcare occurred when a Canadian surgeon completed the country’s first donation-after-death heart transplant in Toronto.
At the University Health Network’s (UHN) Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, Dr. Seyed Alireza Rabi led the team of doctors and nurses behind this historic procedure, Canada’s first donation after death heart transplant.
“This is absolutely a transformation, we are in an era that’s going to change the way heart transplants are done, said Dr. Seyed Alireza Rabi, UHN cardiac surgeon.
A new era in heart transplants
Traditionally, heart transplants are performed when brain death has been confirmed, but the heart continues to beat. The advanced procedure changes that process. Once a family agrees to take a loved one off life support and a death is confirmed, the heart is then recovered by the transplant team.
While the initial process is different, Dr. Alireza Rabi says the risks are similar to a traditional transplant, with a similar surgery time of 7 to 8 hours.
A global first, now in Canada
The procedure was first conducted in Australia in 2014, then the U.K. in 2015, and then in the United States in 2019.
“There has been about a decade, and we were encouraged by the outcome, so we wanted to make sure that the recipients of this heart are doing just as well as the more traditional hearts, said Dr. Alireza Rabi.
While this procedure is the first in Canada, Dr. Alireza Rabi was part of the U.S. team that conducted the surgery in 2019, and now he brings his expertise to Canadians.
“Dr. Alireza Rabi is an international rockstar when it comes to cardiac surgery; when it comes to heart transplantation, we are just thrilled to have him back in Canada and back at UHN,” said Dr. Thomas Forbes, UHN’s Surgeon-in-Chief.
“He joined us from Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was until earlier this summer, and one of the major reasons, ff not the major reason, we wanted to get him back in Canada was to benefit Canadians.”
With nearly 200 Canadians waiting for heart transplants, the University Health Network says this procedure could expedite the heart donor list by 30 per cent and save many lives.
“Every time that this has been done, a heart transplant has been done using this technique, there is a reduction of the number of people who have died on the wait list, shorter wait list times and also improved outlook globally, said Dr. Alireza Rabi.
The hospital network says the patient is recovering well following the transplant. Alireza Rabi says he is hopeful more procedures like this will be performed in the future.
