Transplant

Martin Montenovo, MD, left, and Wali Johnson, MD, perform a liver transplant in 2024. (photo by Erin O. Smith)
February 11, 2025

Vanderbilt Transplant Center reaches new heights in 2024, now the nation’s third busiest 

Through dramatic growth, the VTC is now the nation’s third busiest transplant center by volume, saving 136 more critically ill patients in calendar year 2024 than in 2023.

By Matt Batcheldor
Various instruments sit out for use during a heart transplant surgery on Jan. 15. (photo by Erin O. Smith)
January 31, 2025

How many surgical instruments are used to set the 2024 heart transplant world record?

A standard heart transplant requires surgical instruments spread across multiple sterile tables — from tiny vascular clamps to hefty retractors to keep the surgical field open.

By Holly Fletcher and Erin O. Smith
Robert E. Richie, MD
January 16, 2025

Kidney transplant leader Robert Richie is mourned

He helped build one of the leading kidney transplant programs in the country, both in terms of the number of transplants performed annually, and in long-term organ function and patient survival rates.

By Wayne Wood and Bill Snyder
January 13, 2025

Vanderbilt Transplant Center sets world record for heart transplants in 2024

The Vanderbilt Transplant Center had a banner year in 2024. The number of patients whose lives were saved by Vanderbilt’s heart transplant team far surpasses any previous total by an individual transplant center. 

By Matt Batcheldor
Reginald Porter, here with his wife, Tina, was the first at Vanderbilt to receive a combined liver transplant and Whipple procedure.
January 10, 2025

Novel procedure involves liver transplant, major abdominal surgery

Reginald Porter of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, received the procedure in September after being diagnosed at an area hospital in February with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer that develops in the bile ducts.

By Matt Batcheldor
Vanderbilt’s 2,000th heart transplant patient, Wes Carter, with his family: wife, Ashley, daughter, Presley (4) and son, Gentry (7).
January 6, 2025

Heart transplant program reaches new landmark

The recipient of the 2,000th transplant was Wes Carter, 37, a real estate agent from Pensacola, Florida, who first noticed an irregular heart rhythm in his mid-20s.

By Matt Batcheldor
December 20, 2024

Vanderbilt Center for Transplant Science announces leadership team 

The center was created earlier this year to save the lives of patients waiting for a transplant and improve outcomes for patients after they receive a transplant.
By Doug Campbell
November 25, 2024

Lecture, awards honor legacy of Levi Watkins Jr., MD

Constance Mobley, PhD'98, MD'03, shared her journey to becoming a transplant surgeon, the research and clinical innovations she has contributed to during her career, and the wisdom she has gained through the years.
By Jill Clendening
November 22, 2024

Konrad Hoetzenecker named surgical director of the Vanderbilt Lung Transplant Program

Hoetzenecker comes to Vanderbilt from the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, where he has been professor of Lung Transplantation and director of the Lung Transplant Program.
By Matt Batcheldor
November 21, 2024

Ukrainian team visits VUMC to hone transplant surgery skills

With the help of Vanderbilt and other transplant centers, Ukraine has developed a growing transplant program in the country in the last four years.
By Matt Batcheldor
November 7, 2024

Transplant patient’s indomitable spirit proves inspirational

Bill Jackson received a heart and double lung transplant, an unusual procedure performed only a handful of times each year at VUMC and one that can occur at only the most specialized transplant centers.
By Matt Batcheldor
October 7, 2024

Skydiving, bungee jumping, deer hunting and the World Transplant Games: 13 years after getting her new kidney, Sheila Spann keeps living life to the fullest

All that’s in addition to her day jobs as a pharmacist and diabetes educator just outside of Jackson, Mississippi.
By Matt Batcheldor
September 23, 2024

Pioneering transplant surgeon J. Kelly Wright Jr. retires

Wright and C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, performed Vanderbilt’s first liver transplant in 1991. This year, VUMC celebrated its 3,000th liver transplant.
By Matt Batcheldor