Spain has achieved a significant medical breakthrough. Madrid’s public university hospital Gregorio Marañón has successfully carried out Europe’s first partial heart transplant on a seven-month-old baby. The procedure is considered a milestone in paediatric cardiac surgery and opens up new treatment options for infants with severe congenital heart defects.
Spa.in Press
The young patient, Mariami, is recovering well and was able to leave the intensive care unit after just two days — a remarkable outcome given the exceptional complexity of the operation.
New hope for children with congenital heart defects
The innovative technique is aimed at children whose heart valves are improperly formed, causing severe cardiac dysfunction while the heart muscle itself remains intact. In such cases, surgeons transplant only the heart valves from a donor heart, rather than replacing the entire organ.
In Spain alone, around 4,000 children are born each year with comparable congenital heart conditions. Until now, many of them have required multiple surgical interventions throughout their lives.
Heart valves that grow with the child
One of the key advantages of the new procedure is that the transplanted valves grow along with the child’s body. Artificial valves currently in use do not have this capacity, often making repeated operations necessary as the child grows.
The method has been reviewed and approved by Spain’s National Transplant Organisation (ONT) and represents a major step forward in paediatric heart medicine.
A medical achievement of exceptional complexity
The operation at Gregorio Marañón combined three highly specialised techniques that have already established the hospital as one of Europe’s leading centres in this field:
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Heart transplantation despite blood group incompatibility
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Controlled organ donation after circulatory death
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Partial heart transplantation in an infant
This combination makes the case a triple milestone in European paediatric cardiac surgery.
More efficient use of rare paediatric organ donations
The new strategy allows for a more effective use of heart donations in children, which remain extremely rare across Europe. Depending on the medical circumstances, a single donor heart may help several young patients — through one full transplant and one or two additional partial valve transplants.
Of particular importance are so-called domino transplants, in which functional valves from a fully transplanted heart can be reused for other patients.
A breakthrough made possible by solidarity
Behind this medical milestone lies an extraordinary act of humanity. The procedure was only possible thanks to the decision of parents who consented to organ donation after the death of their baby just days after birth.
Amid unimaginable personal loss, they chose to allow their child’s death to give other children a chance at life. Their quiet courage and solidarity form the unseen foundation of this medical advance.
Hospital representatives and health authorities stress that every innovation in transplant medicine ultimately depends on the generosity of donor families — without them, there would be no breakthroughs and no new hope for seriously ill children.
