UC aims to restart heart transplant program

Doctors at University Hospital soon could be doing adult heart transplants here, the first performed in this region since UH suspended its program in 2008. The hospital plans to transplant its first heart in 2013 after approval from the nationwide registry of donors and recipients. If the hospital is able to re-start the program, it would provide a local option for as many as two dozen patients a year in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky who currently have to travel to hospitals in Indianapolis, Columbus, Cleveland or Lexington, KY, to get a new heart. UH doctors say heart transplants are the latest step in a complete heart failure program they want to establish.