Groundbreaking ‘domino' heart surgery at NYC hospital saves lives

Barely eight months after her birth, little Mia Skaats turned out to be both the giver and receiver of new life.

This takes some explaining.

On May 10, 2023, Baby Mia received a new heart in a “domino” transplant procedure at New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, the first one performed in babies. A domino transplant surgery occurs when one person is both a donor for a transplant and a recipient of another organ.

Born with cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart struggles to pump blood to the rest of the body, it was clear Mia needed a heart transplant to survive, and her family was overjoyed when one became available.

Around the same time, a second baby with a serious heart condition came to the attention of the cardiologists at the children’s hospital. Brooklyn Civil was born in March 2023 with one heart valve, not two, and needed a partial transplant.

It turned out that Mia’s heart, while too damaged to keep her alive, did possess the perfectly working valve that Brooklyn needed.

Mia’s family was only too happy to pass on their own good fortune to another family desperate to save their infant daughter.

“There was no hesitation at all,” said Mia’s mother, Nicole. “We had waited so long for that [heart transplant], so to be able to give to somebody … that made the moment that much more special.”

“The timing was actually very serendipitous,” said Dr. Andrew Goldstone, a pediatric and congenital cardiac surgeon at New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. “I said, ‘Well, I’m doing a heart transplant tonight. … Maybe we should do this as a domino. ”

Doctors had never performed a heart domino transplant surgery in babies before, so Mia and Brooklyn are a first. After a nine-hour surgery, both families received good news.

Now, the girls will always share a connection. “One of the nurses said that Brooklyn will always have a piece of Mia’s heart,” Nicole Skaats said. “They’ll always be bonded.”