Erin Morris, 29, has much to be thankful for this holiday season, and at the top of her list is Roman Perri, M.D., assistant professor, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

When Mount Juliet resident Andrea Pierson signed up as an altruistic kidney donor a year ago, she could not have imagined her gift would result in the donation of seven life-saving kidney transplants.

On Aug. 4, 2014, Mary Thomas of Tullahoma biked 10 miles. Fourteen days later she received a life-saving heart transplant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).

The Vanderbilt Transplant Center, one of the largest organ transplant programs in the Southeast, has not only surpassed the projected number of transplants it expected to perform for fiscal year (FY) 2016, but also experienced an increase in the total number of transplants performed over the previous year.

Turning tragedy into triumph is something Khris Downing is learning to do. He’s getting a lot of practice, as he is alive today because of a life-saving organ donation from his older sister, Geraldine Williams, who died on July 26.

How many heart transplant programs do we really need? That was a question posed by a group of investigators, including Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Ashish Shah, M.D., in a novel study that used a computerized algorithm to highlight the value of high-volume transplant centers with corresponding improved outcomes.

A new proposal under consideration by the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) that would change the way donated livers are distributed would negatively impact patients listed for liver transplantation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and across the Southeast, according to Seth Karp, M.D., H. William Scott Jr. Professor and chair of the Department of Surgery.