CARLOS MERY, M.D.
For the first time, a baby born in Austin can have a heart transplant here at home.
But it’s not just about whole hearts — Carlos Mery is thinking about whole lives.
Her heart is the size of a strawberry. Born less than a day ago, with little pulmonary veins bringing oxygen-rich blood back to the right side of her heart instead of the left, where it usually goes, she’ll need immediate surgery to survive and thrive.
From a World-Renowned Surgeon, Treatment in Austin
Four years ago, this baby would have been treated in Dallas or Houston, the nearest cities with pediatric surgical teams able to perform complex procedures on the tiniest of hearts. That changed in 2018, when world-renowned pediatric heart surgeon Charles Fraser Jr. came from Houston to Austin to build the Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease, a collaboration between UT Health Austin and Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas. One of the first people he recruited to join him? Carlos Mery, M.D., MPH.
1,350 Surgeries & 17 Heart Transplants
To date, the program has performed more than 1,350 surgeries, with the Harvard- and Stanford-trained Mery focusing on complex cardiac repairs for people with congenital heart disease, as well as patients with coronary artery anomalies and heart failure. Where before there were none, there have been 17 heart transplants in the last 18 months alone. By traditional — and often stark — measures, the program excels: Though it performs procedures other teams won’t even attempt, its mortality rate from surgery to recovery is 1.7%. (The national average is 2.7%.)
Survival Is Just the Start
But survival isn’t a benchmark that satisfies Mery. “Our goal as a program is to redesign the way that we provide care for patients and families,” he says. “The emphasis has been mortality, and that is a very low bar. What families are asking is ‘Is my child going to be able to go to college? Will he be able to play sports? Will we be OK long term?’
“We’re taking a scientific, collaborative approach to learning from patients and their families about what they go through across the entire journey, so we can start making that journey better.”