After the evaluation, eligible patients are placed on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) list.  Generally, a heart can become available from a deceased donor within a few months, or it can take years. The MUSC Transplant Center’s wait times for an available heart are among the shortest in the nation.

UNOS has a pre-determined process for allocating hearts from deceased donors to eligible transplant candidates.  How quickly a patient receives a heart depends on how sick the patient is. MUSC physicians do not decide who is next to receive a heart from the transplant waiting list.