Domino Transplant Performed

Heart surgeons in Arizona performed a rare domino transplant Friday, placing a donor set of heart and lungs in a California woman and then giving her good heart to a New Mexico man.

Nancy Fox, 34, of Modesto, Calif., and Troy Evans, 57, of Albuquerque, N.M., were both listed, as expected, in critical condition after surgeries that lasted more than five hours, said Jan Rooney, spokeswoman at the University of Arizona Medical Center.

The domino transplant, a first in Arizona, has been done four times in the United States, although a British surgeon is credited with about a dozen such transplants, Rooney said.

Because of a confidentiality policy, the hospital did not identify the deceased heart-lung donor whose organs were transplanted into Fox. Fox arrived at Tucson by air ambulance from California at 12:30 a.m. after being notified that compatible organs were available, Rooney said.

Fox had been living at home since she was placed on the donor organ waiting list in September. She suffered from primary pulmonary hypertension, a disease that impairs use of the lungs.

“High blood pressure in the lungs causes them to deteriorate and then usually affects the heart and its ability to function,” Rooney said.

Evans was diagnosed with ischemic cardiomyopathy, a type of deterioration of the heart muscle. He had been hospitalized since Feb. 8, awaiting a heart transplant.

Rooney said Fox’s heart still was “good,” but surgeons decided to remove it anyway. “Because the heart and lungs work as a unit, it is better to keep them as a unit rather than separating them,” Rooney said.

That was why Fox got a set of both organs and her usable heart was transplanted into Evans, Rooney said.