Heart Center Leipzig: A lifetime - thanks to donor hearts

10/03/2025 08:03

At Heart Center Leipzig, everything revolves around the heart all year round. Dieter Pietsch (91) and Alexander Scholz (53) were also treated at the specialist clinic for heart disease. Both received a new heart in Leipzig. Looking back, they talk about their personal transplant story and life with a donor heart.

Every year, around 30 heart transplants and 50 artificial heart implants are performed at Heart Center Leipzig, with each individual procedure telling a story of survival and hope. PD Alexey Dashevich, Senior Consultant and Head of the Heart Transplantation and Artificial Heart Program at Heart Center Leipzig, compares heart transplantation to a marathon, in which the operation itself is only a small part and illustrates that transplant treatment extends over a very long period of time: "For patients, the story begins months before the operation and, ideally, is not finished long after." How long patients can really live with their transplanted hearts depends on their individual circumstances.

"A donor heart has an average lifespan of over ten years. But we are seeing more and more transplanted hearts working well beyond that. In rare cases, a donor heart can last up to 30 years."

- Prof. Michael A. Borger, MD PhD, Medical Director, Director of the University Clinic for Cardiac Surgery (Head of Department Cardiac Surgery) | Heart Center Leipzig

Dieter Pietsch: "Nobody thought I could keep it up for so long."

Dieter Pietsch was a patient at Heart Center Leipzig for the first time in spring 1998. After several heart attacks and a resulting aneurysm, he was initially treated at Leipzig University Hospital before being transferred to Heart Center Leipzig and put on the transplant list for a new heart. Only a few months passed before the "be ready every minute when the phone rings" paid off and he received what was probably the most important call of his life in July 1998: A new heart was ready for transplantation and he could be picked up immediately. Today, Mr. Pietsch is 91 years old and his donor heart has been beating in his body for over 25 years. "When Professor Mohr told me back then that I had been given a good heart, I accepted that. But apparently I really did get a good heart - it's still going strong," he comments with a smile.

Mr. Pietsch describes the time after the transplant as "many wonderful years": he drives and flies with his wife on vacation to Spain, France and Portugal. Together with a few other transplant patients, he founded a self-help group, today's HLTX e. V., which he even led for ten years. He gets to know his two granddaughters and his grandson, who spoil him and take him to one or two appointments when they are in Leipzig. He goes to the Gewandhaus and to soccer. "Now time has passed and I can hardly believe it. No one thought I would last this long," says Mr. Pietsch, looking back on his personal transplant story. "Back then, we were always told: 'The new heart will last ten or fifteen years'. Now we're already in our 26th year."

He also attributes this good rate to his discipline: He takes his tablets at the same time every day, sticks to the advice and tips he received from the support group, avoids heavy work and gets help whenever he needs it. Even though he is now quickly running out of strength thanks to his advanced age and other illnesses, he remains positive and grateful: "I am happy and proud that I was transplanted here at the Leipzig Heart Center and that I was able to experience so much."

Alexander Scholz: "After the transplant, I suddenly always had full batteries."

When Alexander Scholz was 14 years old, he was diagnosed with DCM (dilated cardiomyopathy): a pathological enlargement of the heart muscle that led to a progressive loss of cardiac output. Thirty years later, his condition suddenly worsened, forcing him to have a defibrillator implanted in May 2005. Just two months later, he was placed on the heart transplant waiting list. When his condition escalated in December 2005, he was placed on the high urgency list. He had to wait another month until his suitable donor organ was found and successfully implanted at the end of January 2006.

Alex Scholz describes the time after the transplant as a major change: "Before, I couldn't even turn the pages of the newspaper properly. After the transplant, I suddenly always had full batteries. My pumping function increased from seven percent to a whopping 72 percent." By the summer after the transplant, he was able to cycle and travel again. In 2009, he slowly began to work again - since June 2012, he has even been able to pursue his passion as a chef full-time again. "After the transplant, you need patience and have to slowly get back to your old habits. You should always think positively. There are many examples of people who have been able to go back to work and pursue their hobbies after a transplant." He is also committed to helping transplant and artificial heart patients at the Leipzig Heart Center: "If patients want to talk to me, I tell them everything they want to know about my story. Or I simply listen to them. I believe that someone who has experienced it has to do that. That's why I'm here at the clinic at weekends. I also support the Donor Families Network. It's a good distraction from my full-time job and I always receive a lot of thanks here." Alex Scholz is also grateful himself - especially to donor families: "Without the generous and selfless decision of the relatives of an organ donor, I wouldn't be standing here today. My thoughts are often with the families who have lost a loved one and, despite the pain, have decided to give others a second chance."

Even after transplantation, patients with donor hearts remain under treatment at Heart Center Leipzig. The pumping capacity of the donor heart is regularly monitored using cardiac ultrasound examinations. Every two years after transplantation, the coronary arteries are also regularly imaged via cardiac catheterization. If the heart's pumping capacity decreases, drug treatment can also be used. Younger patients with a very limited pumping capacity without involvement of other organs are retransplanted and then receive another donor heart.

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