Baptist Health Medical Center reaches heart transplant milestone

Little Rock, Ark.-based Baptist Health Medical Center has performed its 300th heart transplant, local NBC affiliate KARK reported April 14. 

The hospital's heart transplant team completed the first such procedure Nov. 10, 1989. 

The 300th patient, 43-year-old Adam Tappin, was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy more than a decade ago after experiencing shortness of breath while playing basketball. Since then, a heartmate device had been keeping his heart pumping. 

The milestone case was performed a few weeks ago, KARK reported. 

"His body had developed antibodies to multiple different antigens that we all produce in our bodies. As a result, there was a very small, limited number of patients in the population that he was a match with," Patrick Campbell, MD, medical director of the Baptist Health Heart Failure and Transplant Institute, told the news station.

"We've averaged 10 transplants a year, but to reach the 300th is significant and then to do it with a patient like Adam is pretty special," said John Ransom, MD, program director at the hospital's heart transplant institute.

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