Oklahoma City-based Oklahoma Children's Hospital is the first in the state to open a pediatric heart transplant program, ABC affiliate KOCO reported March 5.
The first child has been approved and added to the national transplant list. Before, children in need of heart transplants had to leave the state.
"To add this final kind of piece of the puzzle makes me feel like we accomplished what we set out to do over the last 10 years," Harold Burkhart, MD, an OU Health pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon, told KOCO.
The hospital anticipates performing eight to 10 heart transplants a year.