A Manhasset hospital will be the first on Long Island to perform heart transplants.

North Shore University Hospital announced Wednesday that it will soon become the first and only hospital on Long Island to perform heart transplants. It made the announcement on New York’s Organ Donor Enrollment Day.

“A transplant patient is added on the list every 10 minutes,” said Hicksville resident Rene Nardin, a survivor of four heart attacks and two open heart surgeries. “Being a donor gives the patients and families some hope.”

The 57-year-old man is one of about 300 New York state residents on the wait list for a heart transplant.

Patients with advanced heart failure who do not get a heart transplant have a 50 percent chance of living just one more year.

New York state is currently last in the nation in residents enrolled as organ donors, which is why just after the hospital’s announcement, employees signed up residents to become organ donors.  

The hospital hopes to perform its first transplant by the end of the year.