Faculty, staff and patients of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center gathered recently at Langford Auditorium to celebrate a milestone: 1,000 lung transplants since the program began in 1990.
One of those patients was Pam Everett: In 1990, she was the fourth person to receive a lung transplant at Vanderbilt. She is the longest-living, single-lung transplant recipient known in the world. Also in attendance were her surgeons, Bill Frist, MD, FACS, founding director of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center and later U.S. senator, and Walter Merrill, MD, professor of Cardiac Surgery and chief of staff at Vanderbilt University Hospital.
“I’m very thankful for the 35 years that God gave me to live [since the transplant] and for having good doctors … and my donor family,” Everett said. “I’m just really appreciative of everything.”
The milestone is extraordinary, said C. Wright Pinson, MD, MBA, president of the Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network, senior counselor to the President and CEO of Vanderbilt Health and director of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center from 1993 to 2011.
“There are very few institutions in the world that have accomplished this,” Pinson said. “This moment is a testament to decades of dedication, innovation and unwavering belief in what an academic medical center can achieve when its mission is clear, and its people are united.”
Lung transplants have been attempted since the 1960s, but they were largely unsuccessful until the 1980s, when surgical techniques were refined and new antirejection drugs proved effective, said David Erasmus, MD, associate professor of Medicine and medical director of the Lung Transplant Program and Vanderbilt Lung Institute.
In 2025, Vanderbilt performed 149 lung transplants, a local record, making it the second-largest lung transplant program in the United States.
“This year has been by far the busiest year for us,” Erasmus said. “I am so extremely proud of how the team has been able to achieve this.”
Konrad Hoetzenecker, MD, PhD, MBA, professor of Thoracic Surgery and surgical director of the Lung Transplant Program, predicts that the program will become the largest in the world.
“Thank you to the whole team for the first 1,000 lung transplantations,” he said.
It takes a highly specialized, multidisciplinary team of about 150 people to work on a single transplant. The transplant teams include physicians in each organ specialty, surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists, intensivists, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, social workers, financial coordinators, nutritionists, organ procurement coordinators, preservationists, perfusionists, and operating room staff, among others.
Heather O’Dell, MSN, ANP-BC, MMHC, executive director and associate operating officer of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center, expressed her gratitude to patients, families, faculty and staff.
“To our remarkable patients and families, thank you for travelling,” she said. “For sharing your stories with us and trusting us with your care. Your courage and resilience are what inspire us to do what we do, and it’s an honor to celebrate this moment with you. To our exceptional faculty and staff, thank you for your dedication and compassion you bring every day.”
