UF Health Shands Transplant Center
Learn more about our transplant programs & related practice locations.
Pediatric Heart and Lung Transplants
Heart transplants
The Pediatric Heart Transplant Program at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital has more than 25 years of experience providing heart transplantation to infants and children with the most complex heart disease in Florida.
Our program is led by Congenital Heart Cardiothoracic Surgeon and Director of the UF Health Congenital Heart Center Mark Bleiweis, MD, and Medical Director and Chief of Pediatric Cardiology F. Jay Fricker, MD.
Our one-month, one-year and three-year graft and patient-survival statistics exceed what is expected based on the characteristics of patient risk factors.
Our current areas of concentration include using the Berlin Heart for end-stage heart failure, advanced immunotherapy techniques for patients with elevated panel reactive antibodies and/or antibody-mediated rejection, and transplant of patients with the most severe forms of complex CHD, including those needing combined heart-lung transplant.
Our multidisciplinary team is led by four pediatric nurse practitioners and a dedicated, licensed-clinical social worker. Our program celebrates many firsts for Florida, including:
- First pediatric heart transplant
- First infant heart transplant
- First pediatric heart-kidney transplant
- First pediatric lung transplant
- First combined pediatric heart-lung transplant
- First use of the Berlin Heart Ventricular Assist Device
Lung transplants
The Pediatric Lung Transplant Program at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital is the only one of its kind in Florida.
Situated in North Central Florida, our pediatric pulmonology transplant team also works closely with our pediatric heart transplant team to perform heart-lung transplants. In 2013, the UF pediatric lung transplant team performed the first heart-lung transplant in a child under the age of two in the state of Florida.
Transplant physicians
Browse our directory to find UF Health Physicians and other health care providers offering pre- and post-transplant care.
Sign up to be an organ donor
Join Florida’s organ, tissue and eye donor registry.
Contact us with your questions
Please reach out to our team with your questions and for more information . We have a comprehensive pre-transplant manual that will provide you more information, which you will receive prior to your first appointment. If your child goes on to have a heart transplant, a post-transplant manual will be provided and one of our transplant coordinators will provide the education and supplies that you need to care for your child at home.
UF Health Shands Children's Hospital Pediatric Heart and Lung Transplant Program
1600 Southwest Archer Road, Room 2946
Gainesville, FL 32610-0223
Fax: (352) 265-0057
Make a gift
You can make a gift to help enhance the care of transplant patients.