Division of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery

Patient Zoe Forman, right, and her mother, Heather Rossomme, back home in Alabama after Zoe’s surgery.

July 7, 2025

Quick action to treat young dancer’s rare heart condition a testament to what multidisciplinary teams can do

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.

By Christina Echegaray

June 26, 2025

John White’s medical team has spent decades helping him achieve goals in life — and on the soccer field

His different heart didn’t mean accepting limits

By Evan Dorian

Patient Van Sung with her parents, Nathan and Rem Kumthar. (photo by Susan Urmy)

May 28, 2025

Medical team uses nontraditional therapy to help give young patient a chance at making it to heart transplant

The team used an Impella, a catheter-based miniature ventricular assist device. It offered the best chance of getting rising eighth-grader Van Sung to transplant.

By Jessica Pasley

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

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

October 15, 2024

David Bichell stepping down as chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery

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.