The Congenital Heart Center at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital is home to Michigan’s leading children’s heart transplant programs.  We have performed more than 275 pediatric heart transplants since the program's beginning in 1984, consistently reporting low organ rejection rates and high patient survival rates that rank among the world's best.

Our expert team of pediatric heart specialists provides complete care—from evaluation through long-term follow-up—for children from birth to age 18. With deep experience in complex congenital heart disorders, we focus on delaying or avoiding transplants through advanced heart failure therapies. When transplantation is needed, our program achieves world-class survival rates with low rejection. Unlike many centers, we accept high-risk cases, including children with kidney or liver complications, and can perform combined organ transplants (heart+kidney or heart+liver).

As Michigan’s largest and most experienced transplant center, we offer unique advantages: access to cutting-edge treatments through clinical trials, a dedicated transplant pharmacy team, and multi-organ listing options to reduce wait times. Families also benefit from our network of support, including connections with other transplant families at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

To make an appointment with our heart transplant team, or to learn more about the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital Congenital Heart Center, please call 734-764-5176.

The heart failure specialists at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital have extensive experience prolonging life while a child waits for a viable donor heart. Management therapies can include:

• Oral heart failure medications
• Intravenous inotropes – medical therapy delivered through an IV to help the heart beat more strongly
• Mechanical assistance devices – a number of mechanical circulatory support devices (such as a VAD) can be used to help the heart pump blood to the body. C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital offers a number of these devices, including portable options that can be operated on batteries, allowing children to live and thrive at home while they wait for transplant.
• Nutrition therapy is a key component of the Pediatric Heart Transplant Program, getting children nutritionally stable so they are ready for transplant sooner and to avoid complications following transplant. Formulas, vitamins and feeding tubes are some of the options our dedicated nutritionists use to get kids the nutrition they require.

The transplant journey

Evaluation for organ transplant and the process of being matched with a donor organ is a complex process. In addition, patients who have received an organ transplant require life-long medical management and specialized follow-up care. Our team will work with you to help you understand every step of the transplant journey, and provide you access to a wide range of children’s heart transplant resources, guides and support programs.

Education and support are provided before, during and after transplant for children and their families, utilizing our Child Life services and pediatric transplant psychologists, to ease anxiety, answer questions and help kids feel in control of their treatment plan. We also view each child and family as collaborating members of our team, which includes social workers, dietitians, transplant coordinators, nurse practitioners, physicians, surgeons, living donor advocates, financial coordinators, pharmacists and the clinical research team.

• View Heart Transplant information in the U-M Health Patient Education Library

Research is an important component of the Congenital Heart Center’s and the Transplant Center’s respective missions. Our faculty/staff participate in and – in some cases – lead cutting-edge, multi-center studies that will benefit both today's patients and transplant patients in the future.

We participate in a multi-center Pediatric Heart Transplant Society, dedicated to advancing the understanding and management of children who undergo heart transplantation.