A new heart for Valentine: Illinois woman thrives after rare dual organ transplant

CHICAGO - This Valentine’s Day, we heard from a woman who recently underwent a rare dual organ transplant.

Doctors gave Laura Valentine a new heart and liver.

What we know:

Valentine, 35, was born with only half a heart and a rare condition where all her organs were reversed in her body.

For example, while most people’s hearts are on the left side, hers was on the right.

After undergoing two open-heart surgeries earlier in life, she began feeling unwell in 2023 as her heart and liver started to fail. Now, she says she’s thriving.

"I feel great. Since I got my new organs, started a doctorate program, I've gotten engaged. I will be doing the Hancock stair climb in nine days. I can do 71 flights of stairs on the stair master straight through right now. I have to get to 94, so okay, we'll get there," Valentine said. 

Valentine’s first open-heart surgery happened when she was a baby. This past summer, she underwent her third, at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

"I've started to think about it instead of like, look what I can do, it's like, look what we can do because I am me and my donor do these things together," said Valentine, who’s a mom to daughter Ella. "The first thing she asked me is if I was still going to be able to love her with a new heart. So. And I told her, yeah, I'm really lucky because I get to love her with two."

Doctors used virtual reality before the procedure to map out her reversed organs, determine how to remove her old heart and liver, and plan how to attach the new ones.

What they're saying:

Dr. Michael Earing, a cardiologist with UChicago Medicine and part of Valentine’s extensive health care team, said her case was particularly complex.

"Kids that were born with heart defects, they've had a lot of surgeries and a lot of procedures before. So there's increased challenges, especially with the anatomy… and they've also had a lot of surgeries. So their kidneys and their liver and all those things can be injured. That increases the risk. That's why this specialized team has been created to help take care of them," said Dr. Earing. "It was a 22-hour surgery. So, you can imagine two giant teams, our liver team, our heart team working together to do this."

According to Earing, UChicago Medicine has performed 26 adult congenital heart transplants in the past four years. Eleven of those have been dual transplants involving both the heart and liver.

On this Valentine’s Day, Valentine is looking forward to celebrating with her fiancé.