Family celebrates 1-year anniversary of heart transplant at St. Louis Children’s Hospital

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - June 20 marks one year since Luke Nedved, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, underwent a heart transplant at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. It’s known as his one-year “heart-iversary.”

Luke will turn 3 years old on July 5. His short life has been a long journey.

He was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in July of 2022 with a congenital heart defect known as hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). Dr. Janet Scheel is a WashU Medicine pediatric cardiologist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and medical director of the hospital’s transplant program.

“When you are born with a hypoplastic left heart, basically half of your heart is missing,” she said.

Treatment for HLHS includes a series of surgeries and possibly a heart transplant. Monika Nedved is Luke’s mother.

“He would have to go through three different open-heart surgeries. The first one was when he was eight days old,” she said.

Luke’s health improved after two surgeries and was healthy all of 2023. On New Year’s Eve, his health took a turn for the worse, and his parents took him to a hospital emergency room.

“He is showing signs of heart failure,” said Nedved.

Arrangements were made to fly Luke to St. Louis Children’s Hospital and put him on the list to receive a donor heart. Before Luke could be moved, he suffered a stroke, improved and then coded for 19 minutes before being revived. Eventually, he was flown to Children’s Hospital.

“Historically, we have been one of the leading centers, the top 5 perhaps, in the last decade or so. And we have done over 600 transplants at this time,” said Scheel.

Luke lived at the hospital for four months while the family waited for a donor heart.

“The people at St. Louis Children’s, I can’t say enough good things about them. We were just welcomed with open arms,” said Nedved.

Luke’s surgery took place on June 20, 2024, and it lasted 16 hours. His health has improved dramatically, but he still spends time on physical, occupational and speech therapy.

St. Louis Children’s Hospital performs around 20 pediatric transplant surgeries a year.

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