“Can you live a long life after a heart transplant?”

I have personally had patients live greater than ten years after their transplant

As you probably know heart transplants are reserved for the sickest of heart patients. Typically the patients who receive a heart transplant would have at least a 50% mortality in one year without the transplant. Heart transplant patients generally do pretty well. It is a very serious operation and requires lifelong immunosuppression therapy. I believe the average heart transplant patient today lives about 8 to 12 years. Obviously, things like infections because of the immunosuppressive therapy or early heart reach transplant rejection can cause earlier death. Some heart transplant patients can live more than 20 years.

Heart transplantation is an established therapy for end-stage heart failure (HF) for both men and women with a 1-year survival of 91% and a median survival of 12 to 13 years.