Holiday for Transplanted Hearts at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara

Gail Allen can joke a bit about the surgery that gave her husband a new heart, 25 years ago, making Jim Allen one of Kaiser Permanente’s longest surviving heart transplant patients.
“The doctor said Jim came into the hospital with an old, broken down Volkswagen, and he left with a new Ferrari,” smiles Gail.
Jim, sitting next to his wife at the annual Heart Transplant Recipient’s Holiday Party at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara, agreed, ruefully commenting that his transplanted heart may be the best organ in his body.
The Allen’s, who live near Marysville, were among nearly four dozen heart transplant recipients, their families, and caregivers, at what has now become the 20th annual holiday heart party. At the Kaiser Santa Clara conference center, guests sit at 6 long rows of tables , and have lunch “family style” because really, everyone who has a transplanted heart or takes care of transplant recipient are in a very special “family”.
“We compare notes and talk about the emotional and physical changes we feel after getting a new heart,” said Marsha Koehler of Walnut Creek, who noted she was a 17-and-three-quarters year recipient of a new heart. “There’s also a pot-luck gathering for transplant recipients in the summer.”
For the holidays, there’s a Christmas tree decorated with special ornaments inscribed with the name of recent Kaiser Permanente heart transplant recipients. A continuous video of a cheerful burning fireplace log plays on a large screen at the front of the center and many of the guests are dressed in Christmas-themed clothing.
And there’s a lot of hugging, because just being there is a blessing. Some recipients don’t survive, even with the excellent odds for survival nowadays. When Jim Allen got his new heart in 1989, the 20 year survival rate for heart transplant recipients was just over 24%.
Now, with advances in surgery and medications, 85-to-90-percent of heart transplant patients are living one year after surgery with an annual death rate of approximately 4% thereafter. Three year survival approaches 75%. Long term survival is 53% or better.
“The good news is our heart transplant recipients are surviving much longer and with better health,” said Dr. Dana Weisshaar, who has headed up Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara’s Heart Transplant Service for more than 20 years. “The bad news is more people could use heart transplants, but since the supply of healthy organs has plateaued, many people die waiting.”
Kaiser Permanente works closely with the California Transplant Donor Network. Kaiser’s patients, suffering heart failure, get their transplant evaluations and pre-operative care at Santa Clara, and then get their surgeries at Stanford or UCSF. Patients then return to Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara for intensive post-operative care.
And not every heart failure patient gets a transplant. One grateful man at the holiday party (who didn’t want to share his name) said he’s following doctors’ orders, taking his medicines, eating better, getting exercise, and losing weight, all of which are improving his heart health.
More than 280 patients have been transplanted through the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Heart Transplant Service and given a life-extending gift, and while there is plenty of joy at the annual Holiday Party, there is sadness too for those who didn’t survive and also one emotional tribute.
“We never get to meet our donors, and rarely get to meet the donor family that approved the donation,” said Dr. Weisshaar, her voice quavering. And with that, she introduced the mother and father of a girl whose heart saved the life of a Kaiser Permanente patient.
The man and woman sat quietly while everyone in the room rose and gave them a standing ovation that lasted close to a minute.