Doctors Perform First Ever Living Mitral Valve Transplant Saving Lives of Three Young Girls

In a historic and groundbreaking series of surgeries, doctors have successfully performed the world’s first-ever living mitral valve replacement, saving the lives of three young girls from North Carolina. The procedure was done after 11-year-old Journi Kelly, from Wilson, received a full heart transplant at Duke Health.

And so, rather than getting rid of her original heart, the doctors saved two healthy valves, which were transplanted into two other kids. One of the valves went to a teenager, a cross-country runner from Charlotte, who urgently needed a mitral valve replacement after suffering from a life-threatening bacterial infection.

The other valve was given to a 9-year-old from Pembroke, born with a genetic condition known as Turner’s syndrome that causes heart defects. She had already undergone various other heart surgeries.

At present, children who require heart valve replacements receive either preserved non-living tissue or mechanical valves, which do not grow with the child and often fail within months. “There’s not a good valve option for kids,” said Dr. Douglas Overbey, assistant professor of surgery at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.

“They all require multiple surgeries, and we know they're going to fail down the road,” Overbey added in a news release. “That's hard to talk to parents about, knowing that you're going to have to do the same surgery with a new valve, maybe six months later because they're going to outgrow it.”

Duke's doctors tried doing a partial heart transplant, which uses living valves from donated hearts—giving children valves that can grow with them, thereby reducing the need for future surgeries.

The technique, according to the doctors, was pioneered in 2022, and since then 20 such partial heart transplants under US Food and Drug Administration guidance have been successfully performed.

Doctors said the first child who received the valve was rushed to Duke after sudden heart failure. She was then placed on the transplant list. For the second one, who was battling a bacterial infection known as endocarditis, large holes formed in her mitral valve, and her health began to decline fast.

However, both the children are now recuperating, thanks to the scientific breakthrough.

According to experts, mitral valve repair is an open-heart surgery that fixes problems with your mitral valve—a door that connects your heart’s left atrium and left ventricle. Any disease or malfunction in the area makes it harder for your valve to do its job. Over time, this can lead to heart and lung damage. A repair can help you avoid or delay this.

If you have severe mitral valve disease, your doctor may recommend open-heart surgery to repair or replace your damaged valve. They often prefer repair over replacement, especially when the valve leaks. This is because keeping your valve offers more benefits and fewer risks.

Doctors say the repair has several advantages over valve replacement, like better chances of surviving the surgery and living a longer time afterward, better preservation of heart function, and a lower risk of complications like stroke.

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