Elisabetta Licordari shares 30-year journey with transplanted heart

Ahead of World Heart Day on September 29, Elisabetta Licordari, an art history professor at Roma Tre University, shared her experience living with a transplanted heart for nearly 30 years.

Licordari, who serves as vice president of the Roma section of the Associazione Cardio trapiantati Italiani, was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy at age 26. After experiencing symptoms such as shortness of breath and fatigue, she underwent a successful heart transplant in November 1998 at the hospital in Udine. She noted that the procedure required three attempts to ensure the donor heart was in optimal condition, a process overseen by cardiac surgery pioneer Professor Cesare Puricelli.

Her medical journey involved specialized care at the Fatebenefratelli Isola Tiberina hospital and the Maggiore Hospital in Trieste, where she received regular monitoring for a decade prior to her cardiac arrest in 1995.