Duke Health Blog
Heart Transplant
Learn more about how Duke's heart transplant experts use advanced techniques to care for people with end-stage heart disease who are in need of a heart transplant.
Louisiana Man Receives Life-Saving Heart and Liver Transplants at Duke
In September 2025, Louisiana sheriff’s deputy Nick Lege was suffering from heart failure and liver damage when he arrived via medical flight to Duke University ...
Duke Pediatric Heart Experts Transplant One Heart and Save Two Babies’ Lives
Hours after Grace Ray was born, routine testing flagged major cardiac problems. While Grace’s heart valves were healthy, her heart muscle was not. She underwen ...
Do I Need a Heart Failure Specialist?
A heart failure specialist is just what you might think -- a doctor who specializes in treating heart failure. But when is the right time to seek out this type ...
Alternatives to Heart Transplant? You Have Options
Heart transplantation can be a life-saving treatment for severe heart failure, but it’s a serious operation that requires a lifelong commitment. As a result, a ...
New Options Make It Possible for More People to Receive Heart Transplants
Heart transplantation is the most effective treatment for end-stage heart failure; however, the nationwide shortage of donor hearts may mean a long wait on the ...
New Dad Gets Heart and Liver Transplants at Duke
Despite being young and active, Stefan Rucker felt sluggish and weak in his early forties. In October 2020, the 16-year veteran police detective was diagnosed ...
Domino Heart Transplant Offers New Opportunities for Children with Congenital Heart Disease
When three-month-old Asher Hobby needed a heart transplant, his parents eagerly agreed to help to save another life at the same time. In June 2023 at Duke Heal ...
Advances at Duke Fast-Track Second Heart Transplant for Charlotte Man
Thanks to congenital heart disease, Dan Kummer had a heart transplant before he could even legally rent a car. His troubles returned 20 years later when his tr ...
Duke Surgeons First in U.S. to Place New-Generation Artificial Heart
For the first time in the U.S., heart surgeons at Duke University Hospital successfully implanted a new-generation artificial heart as part of a clinical trial ...
Duke Heart Surgeons Perform First Pediatric Heart Transplant of its Kind in the U.S.
Duke surgeons successfully performed the first "donation after circulatory death” (DCD) heart transplant in a pediatric patient in the U.S. The transplant team ...
Mother and Daughter Receive Organ Transplants at Duke One Month Apart
Tyra Ingram, 19, of Laurinburg, NC was born with more than one congenital heart defect and needed three major heart surgeries and a pacemaker before she was fi ...
Surgeons Use 3D-Printed Heart Model to Plan Complex Surgery
Duke cardiologists collaborated with a Duke University technology lab to print a 3D model of a woman’s heart and ribcage to plan her complex heart surgery. Tha ...