COMMENT:
The COVID-19 pandemic poses a variety of challenges for transplant programs.  Balancing the risk of waitlist mortality, the safety of the transplant team staff, and the unknown outcome of an immunosuppressed recipient contracting COVID-19 is difficult.
To our knowledge, a case of a patient awaiting heart transplant who contracts COVID-19, survives, and then undergoes successful OHT has not been reported in the literature.  This case is of interest to demonstrate that OHT is still feasible in a recipient who has negative COVID-19 PCR prior to transplant in the setting of a prior positive test.
As the pandemic evolves, with the inevitable increase in numbers of COVID-19 patients in the population, transplant centers will need to explore the implications of COVID-19 positivity in the pre-transplant and immediate post-transplant period in order to continue to successfully provide heart transplant to our waitlist population.
This is the first patient described in the literature to survive COVID-19 and then undergo successful OHT.  Our patient has no obvious sequela of COVID-19 infection and has been COVID negative since time of transplant.
As the global pandemic continues, this case demonstrates the safety and feasibility of continuing to provide OHT to patients who are survivors of COVID-19.
Further study is warranted to elucidate any impact of prior COVID-19 infection on immunosuppressive regimen or possible long standing pulmonary complications post-transplant.