Cristina Capdevila

Eight complex cardiac procedures in a single week. Bellvitge University Hospital performed four heart transplants and implanted four ventricular assist devices in patients with severe heart failure, an unprecedented concentration of urgent, unscheduled procedures for the centre in such a short period. The milestone highlights the responsiveness of Bellvitge’s Advanced Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Programme, which was able to mobilise multidisciplinary teams in parallel to treat all eight highly complex cases. Three of the four transplanted hearts came from controlled donation after circulatory death, a technique introduced by Bellvitge in Catalonia in 2021, with nearly 60 transplants performed using this approach to date.

This ability to respond to highly complex cardiac cases comes as the hospital undertakes another major transformation: the renovation of its clinical facilities. Bellvitge has begun refurbishing several areas on the first and third floors of the main building to bring them in line with current needs, with the works scheduled to continue until August 2028. “The new spaces will be better suited to the complexity of the patients we treat and will provide them with greater comfort,” says Cristina Capdevila, General Manager of Bellvitge University Hospital. Capdevila is a specialist in Family and Community Medicine and has spent much of her career at Bellvitge.