She conducted the transplant on the theory that a newborn's immune system was so immature, it had not yet developed the antibodies to attack the foreign heart.
[6] West and her husband's tenure at Sick Kids ended in 2005 when they were recruited by Terry Klassen to join Alberta's Stollery Children's Hospital.
[8] Due to her overall research and transplant success, West was recognized by Alberta Venture as one of the province's 50 Most Influential People in 2014.
[9] In the same year, West was also named to a three-year term on the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
[10] In 2017, West was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada for having "focused her career on finding treatments for infants with lethal cardiac malformations.