Riyadh Hospital Uses One Donor Heart to Save Two Kids

Surgeons at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh have successfully treated two children using a single donor heart, in a pioneering pediatric domino heart transplantation described as the first of its kind in the Middle East and Europe. The achievement was announced in mid-September 2026.

In the procedure, the donor heart was transplanted into a 12-year-old boy suffering from end-stage heart failure. Rather than discarding his own removed heart, surgeons harvested its healthy pulmonary valve and root for use in a second child.

The second patient, a 9-year-old, underwent a Ross procedure to treat severe aortic valve stenosis and failure. In this operation, the child's own pulmonary valve was moved to replace the diseased aortic valve, and the vacated pulmonary position was reconstructed using the healthy valve and root taken from the first child's explanted heart.

Why it matters

Through this carefully coordinated sequence of consecutive surgeries, the first child became both a heart transplant recipient and a source of viable cardiac tissue. As a result, a single donated heart extended its benefit to two young patients rather than one.

The technique highlights the growing role of Saudi hospitals in advanced pediatric cardiac surgery and transplantation. For families in the Kingdom, it reflects expanding access to complex, life-saving care within the region, and underscores the lasting impact a single act of organ donation can have on more than one life.

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