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.

The delegation is planning to establish a new heart transplant program in the Philippines, serving a population of 115 million people.

With the help of the team from Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital, yes he could.

At 6 feet, 11 inches, he played in the NBA for 11 years on five different teams before retiring in 2008 and never had any heart issues that slowed him down.

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.

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.

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.