Heart Transplant: All Aboard My New Heart!

Heart Transplant: All Aboard My New Heart! invites children, teens, and the adults who care for them on a hopeful journey from sick-heart struggles to standing tall with a brand-new “train station.” Using a lively train-station analogy—where the heart powers the blood “trains” that deliver oxygen cargo all over the body—complex anatomy suddenly feels familiar and fun.

Inside, readers discover:

• Why hearts sometimes fail and the symptoms that signal trouble.
• Bridging support with a VAD, explained as a super-charged battery that keeps the trains moving while you wait for your donor heart.
• The gift of donation—how a generous donor family’s decision lets your new heart “beat on inside of you,” and what matching, wait-list status, and transplant day look like.
• Step-by-step surgery and recovery, from ICU tubes to regular “track inspections” (biopsies and caths) that keep the new heart chugging strong.
• A kid-friendly “Doctor Words” glossary that turns intimidating terms like immunosuppression, rejection, and PVR into easy language.

Every page pairs plain-spoken text with warm, full-color illustrations to ease anxiety and build confidence. Subject-matter review by pediatric heart-transplant experts guarantees both accuracy and empathy.

Written at a 5th- to 6th-grade reading level, All Aboard My New Heart! empowers young patients and their families with knowledge, lowers fear of the unknown, and celebrates the extraordinary courage and generosity at the heart of every transplant story.

"This is a great story for kids to relate and understand their journey of pediatric heart transplant.  The use of trains as mode of explanation of the blood flow through the human body is quite clever.  As a pediatric transplant nurse I advocate for kids to be presented with the education and have understanding of their own heart conditions and anatomy of the heart.  Dr. Maria Baimas-George has been able to develop and provide a means of education that can be utilized by various ages.  The 'Facts' after the story is inclusive of a developmentally appropriate level review of the basic concepts of heart transplant, medications, procedures, and possible complications.  This is an amazing book and will be beneficial for all kids on their journey of heart transplant."––Meghan Youngerberg, RN, MSN, CCRN, CPN, PHN, Pediatric Heart Transplant Coordinator