Chicagoland Children's Health Alliance celebrates first pediatric heart transplant

When doctors told Nataly Paramó last November that she needed a heart transplant to stay alive, the 15-year-old was afraid.

“Scared, kind of,” Nataly said. “And a little nervous.”

But as the first heart transplant patient to be served by the Chicagoland Children's Health Alliance (CCHA), the teenager had three medical systems — University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital, Advocate Children’s Hospital and Endeavor Health — on her side.

The CCHA, founded in 2018, offers comprehensive multidisciplinary pediatric care in Chicago and surrounding suburbs across several specialties, including pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery. CCHA doctors hold leadership positions spanning multiple member institutions.

The alliance “allows our patients to benefit from the strength of our partners’ outpatient footprints and the expertise of UChicago Medicine’s research and clinical trials,” said Michael Earing, MD, Chief of the Section of Pediatric Cardiology at UChicago Medicine and also the division director of pediatric cardiology at CCHA and Advocate Children’s.

Heart failure discovered during sports physical

Nataly’s heart problem, idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, was discovered last fall during a sports physical she needed to play on her school's basketball team.

Unbeknownst to Nataly and her family, the teenager’s heart was failing.

“She was tired, but we didn't know that it was because of her heart,” said Juana Ortiz, Nataly’s mother.

Nataly’s symptoms, including a heavy feeling in her chest and a racing heart, were related to her weakened heart not squeezing normally. Fluid was backing up into her lungs.

“Her heart basically had become completely enlarged and was dysfunctional,” said Luca Vricella, MD, chief of pediatric cardiac surgery for both UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s and the CCHA.

Nataly was admitted to Advocate Children’s in Oak Lawn, where a team of doctors and nurses spent more than a month trying to heal her damaged heart with medications.

But Nataly’s heart proved too impaired for the treatments to be effective, said Stephen Pophal, MD, a UChicago Medicine pediatric cardiologist and CCHA’s director of heart transplantation.

"Nataly definitely went through some hard months with regard to realizing her heart was sick and wasn’t going to get better,” said Pophal, who remembers Nataly’s courage throughout.

Pediatric cardiac surgery in Chicago

Nataly received a heart transplant on December 4, 2024. Three weeks later, she was back home in East Chicago, Indiana, to celebrate Christmas.

She has returned to school part-time and recently completed physical therapy; doctors will monitor her closely for the next year.

“I’ve done a lot of heart transplants in my life, but when it’s the first one in a new program, all eyes are on you and it has to go well,” Vricella said. “Everybody was like a musician in a fine classical orchestra, and everybody played their part."

Since 2018, CCHA physicians and hospital staff have performed more than 500 cardiac surgeries and treated more than 15,000 heart patients, including three heart transplants since December.

“Our other two transplant patients were even sicker and necessitated an assistive device for the heart to bridge them to transplantation,” Vricella said. “This is a CCHA success story — to build the heart transplant program, we used the expertise and know-how from each institution.”

All CCHA heart transplants are performed at Advocate Children’s, and the program was certified by the United Network for Organ Sharing in 2023.

Active life after heart transplant

Six months out from her heart transplant, Nataly is taking anti-rejection medications and wears a mask to avoid contracting a virus that could damage her new heart.

“With continued, meticulous care, Nataly should feel really good and hopefully have a wonderful high school, college and young-adult life,” Pophal said.

Nataly said she feels less tired and is able to participate in more activities, like playing outside with her two younger sisters. Next year, she plans to play high-school soccer.

“I'm thankful for everything the doctors have done,” Nataly said.