At the Heart of our Mission

NYP’s pediatric cardiologists are pioneering treatments for our patients.

Mia Skaats and Brooklyn Civil Were Both Born With Rare, life-threatening congenital heart defects and had spent much of their first months in the neonatal cardiac intensive care unit at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of Children’s Hospital of New York. NYP cardiac surgeons came up with a plan to help them both at the same time.

In 2023, NYP performed the first-ever domino heart valve transplant between two infants—Mia, then eight months old, received a full heart transplant, and healthy valves from her old heart were donated to Brooklyn, who was two months old.

“We went from helping one baby to two,” said Dr. Marc Richmond, Pediatric Cardiologist and Associate Medical Director of the Program for Pediatric Cardiomyopathy, Heart Failure, and Transplantation. “The #1 reason babies die while on a transplant list is because they don’t match with a donor fast enough. So the ability to help more than one child—that’s the holy grail for us. There were dozens of people in the hospital caring directly for both children. It was a whole team effort.”

The pioneering surgery provided Mia and Brooklyn with the critical care they needed not just to survive but also to thrive.

The pioneering surgery provided Mia and Brooklyn with the critical care they needed not just to survive but also to thrive.

Only a year later, in July 2024, the NYP team took on another groundbreaking challenge and performed one of the first split-root domino partial heart transplants in the United States. This procedure would transform the lives of not two, but three patients: 10-year-old Hend Almesafri, two-year-old Thomas “Teddy” Carter, and 18-month-old John Catoliato (pictured below).

The split-root domino procedure enables a deceased donor heart to donate living valves to other patients. Within just 24 hours, Hend first received a full heart transplant from a deceased donor and then became a living donor herself. Surgeons retrieved two healthy valves from Hend’s original heart and transplanted them into two other patients—Teddy and John. The children’s living valves will grow with them, which means they may not need reoperations down the road. Cardiac surgeons, perfusionists, heart failure specialists, ICU staff, and nurses collaborated to perform a series of operations with precision and care.

“We’re uniquely positioned to perform domino transplants and split-root dominos because of the surgical and team expertise in all aspects of cardiovascular disease and transplantation, and the resources necessary to make this all a reality,” says Dr. Andrew Goldstone, Surgical Director of Pediatric Heart Transplantation and Surgical Director of Pediatric Heart Valve Transplantation.

For the NYP team, these are more than clinical milestones; they are a testament to what’s possible when expertise, compassion, and courage converge. Every child deserves this kind of care. That’s why NewYork-Presbyterian created the Children’s Heart Center. Our reputation for excellence brings patients with the greatest acuity to our doors. In 2023, we surpassed 600 pediatric heart transplants—more than any other program in the country. Now, we’re building a facility to match the future of that care. The Beacon (pictured below, on the right)—currently under construction on the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center campus—will transform the experience of care for children with congenital heart disease.

This level of medical excellence extends to every Children’s Hospital of New York location. Born at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, Yasin Samad was diagnosed with a complex congenital heart defect known as tetralogy of Fallot and underwent two successful heart surgeries before turning two years old.

However, when Yasin was seven years old, signs of valve failure reappeared. He became short of breath and needed more rest while playing, indicating his condition was worsening earlier than expected.

Dr. Emile Bacha (pictured below, in the middle), Chief of the Division of Cardiac, Thoracic, and Vascular Surgery at NYP/Columbia, recommended that Yasin enroll in a national clinical trial testing a new heart valve device called the Autus Valve. Dr. Bacha is one of the leaders of the trial, and NYP is one of the first three hospitals in the U.S. selected to participate.

“Yasin was a great candidate for this particular valve because any other traditional option would have required him to have yet more surgeries in the future, and we wanted to avoid that,” says Dr. Bacha.

Yasin became one of the first children in the country to have the Autus Valve. Today, Yasin is full of energy and pride—he even created a show-and-tell presentation about his heart at school. Dr. Maria Thanjan (pictured below, right, with Yasin), Director of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens and part of Yasin’s care team since the beginning, surprised Yasin by joining him to talk to his class. Yasin’s journey is possible only at a place like the Children’s Hospital of New York at NewYork-Presbyterian—where collaboration is at the heart of patient care.