Neonatology

Neonatal Heart Valve Donation

The purpose of this video is to assist you to organise a neonatal heart valve donation within your unit where there is a confirmed neonatal death by neurological criteria death and/or cardiac criteria death.

Two important documents that you can use to facilitate the donation of a neonatal heart valve in addition to this video are:

The Heart Valve Donation Flow Chart, which details all the steps you need to take to organise a neonatal heart valve donation.
Heart Valve Donation Flow Chart (PDF, size 163.4 KB, 1 page)
Heart Valve Donation Parent Information leaflet, which has key information for parents to assist in the decision making process.
Infant Heart Valve Donation for Transplantation Leaflet (PDF, size 348.6 KB, 2 pages)

The Mater transplant coordinator team coordinate heart valve donation nationwide and are available 24/7 for referrals, the request for neonatal heart valve donation should be considered a standard and appropriate part of end of life care.

Discussions in terms of heart valve donation can only take place with parents or guardians when they are fully aware and able to comprehend that their infant’s death is inevitable. Introducing the possibility of donation should be delivered in a sensitive and caring manner to the infant’s family by the attending doctor.