Bystanders assumed the healthy teen — who has danced for nine years, six of those competitively — was overheated or exhausted. Conscious, though unresponsive to questions, Zoe quickly worsened.
His different heart didn’t mean accepting limits
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.
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.
Under Bichell’s leadership, the pediatric heart transplant program has consistently had among the highest transplant volumes in the United States, ranking eighth in 2023 for pediatric heart transplant center volumes with 15 transplants performed.