Elizabeth Craze

Elizabeth Craze is one of the youngest known recipients of a heart transplant. She received a new heart in 1984 at the age of 2 years, 10 months. The operation was performed at Stanford Hospital, Stanford, California by the team of Norman Shumway, one of the early pioneers of heart transplant surgery.

Although considered almost conventional today, in the early 1980s heart transplants (in children especially) were extremely rare. She has had to rely on various medications throughout her life, some with severe side effects, including needing a kidney transplant surgery at the age of 15. Craze has been able to lead a normal life including activities such as playing junior high school volleyball, and attending Whittier College.

Life after surgery Craze was featured in the Spring/Summer 2012 Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation newsletter.

In October 2014 Craze celebrated the 30th anniversary of her surgery by raising money and awareness for Donate Life California, and completing the Rock’n’Roll Half-Marathon in San Jose. As of 2014, Craze was the only heart transplant recipient in the United States to survive 30 years with the same donor heart she received as a toddler.