One heart, three lives: How Duke Health is revolutionizing pediatric heart transplants

Journi Kelly, 11, needed a new heart, but had healthy mitral valves. Margaret Van Bruggen, 14, and Kensley Frizzell, 9, had relatively healthy hearts; they just needed new valves. A groundbreaking procedure developed at Duke Health led to all three girls getting what they needed. 

The Duke team performed the world’s first living mitral valve replacement, a type of partial heart transplant, which Duke pioneered in 2022. The transplant is even more remarkable for pediatric patients like Margaret and Kensley. Previous technologies relied on either mechanical valves or valves that came from preserved non-living tissue. Neither of those grow with the patient, so a pediatric valve replacement is a guarantee of multiple surgeries, sometimes as often as every six months, until the patient stops growing. The living tissue means that Margaret and Kensley should be able to steer clear of the operating room for some time. Journi went into sudden heart failure and was waiting for a heart transplant, though her mitral valves were undamaged. When a heart became available for Journi, her valves were a match for both Margaret and Kensley. 

“To think that the lives of three girls could be saved after one full-heart donation is amazing,” said Joseph Turek, M.D., Duke’s chief of pediatric cardiac surgery. 

“Before Journi’s surgery, we were told the doctors were hoping to try a new procedure and asked if we were willing to donate Journi’s old heart,” said Rachel Kelly, Journi’s stepmom. “They explained to us that they could use the healthy parts of it to help other kids. Our next question was, ‘Where do we sign?’”

LEARN MORE