Department of Cardiac Surgery Archive — Page 5 of 7

VUMC’s ECMO program has expanded to areas outside of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit.
September 12, 2019

ECMO program expanding to more intensive care units

VUMC is expanding its ECMO program from its longtime home in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) to the Medical (MICU) and Trauma Intensive Care units.

By Matt Batcheldor
August 1, 2019

VUMC performs its first transplant using rehabilitated lungs

For the first time at Vanderbilt, doctors have performed a transplantation with donated lungs that were rehabilitated using a procedure called ex vivo lung perfusion.

By Matt Batcheldor
July 24, 2019

Patient who was too sick to attend daughter’s graduation recovering after double lung transplant

Bridget Perez could barely walk a few steps. Now she’s walking laps at the Dayani Center track and marveling at how it feels to breathe again.

By Tavia Smith
May 9, 2019

Rehab technique may boost supply of donor lungs

A new regeneration technique could potentionally add to a limited supply of donor organs for an increasing population with end-stage lung disease.

By Matt Batcheldor
May 2, 2019

More congenital heart patients becoming transplant candidates

Patients with a form of congenital heart disease — having only one ventricle (pumping chamber) — are now living longer lives due to the successful surgical and medical treatments they receive as children.

By Matt Batcheldor
Tim Lowell, here with his wife, Ginger, was Tennessee’s first total artificial heart transplant patient. He recently received a permanent donor heart.
March 28, 2019

First artificial heart patient gets permanent replacement

Tim Lowell of Hernando, Mississippi, received the first total artificial heart in the state of Tennessee when the cardiac surgery team at Vanderbilt Health placed the device in his chest on Sept. 26, 2018. The mechanical heart kept him alive for nearly three months until a matching human donor heart became available and he was transplanted on Dec. 16, 2018, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

By Matt Batcheldor