Transplant history

1988

The Alfred is chosen as Victoria's Adult Heart Transplant Centre.

1989

The Alfred's Heart Lung Transplant Service commences with a heart transplant, and is now the busiest such unit in Australia and South East Asia.

1990

The unit performs its first heart-lung transplant and its first single lung transplant in October.

1990

An Alfred team implants the first artificial heart pump in south east Asia and a Thoratec Ventricular Assist Device as a bridge to heart transplantation and the first transcontinental heart retrieval from Perth.

1990

A patient is flown from Perth to Melbourne for transplantation in a specially-pressurised RAAF Hercules plane. This heralds the unit's first successful retrieval and later, transplantation of a critically ill patient from across the country.

1991

An Alfred team visits another hospital to insert Extracorporeal Oxygenator (ECMO) into a patient who is then brought back to The Alfred for transplantation.

1992

The first bilateral sequential lung transplant is performed in 1990 – heart and lungs had to be transplanted together. Since then, with advancements in technology, single and bilateral lung transplants have successfully been performed by The Alfred.

1994

Trans-Tasman heart lung procurement (Australia's first).

1996

The Unit achieves highest servicing rate for lung transplantation in the world and remains among the top five in the world in terms of numbers and patient outcomes.

2003

First implantation of a Ventrassist artificial heart device.

2004

The 500th lung transplant is performed at The Alfred.

2005

The Alfred begins its Paedriatric Lung Transplant Program. More than a dozen young people have benefited from this service.

Reproduced from 'Alfred Matters' November 2009 Edition – Published by The Alfred Hospital