For years, doctors told Piper Davis it was impossible to have a heart transplant. She was born with just one ventricle, or pumping chamber, instead of two. A generation ago, such patients didn’t survive into adulthood.

In the first such procedures in Tennessee, Vanderbilt University Medical Center has successfully used technology to bring two donor hearts that stopped beating back to life before transplanting them into patients.

Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is one of the original pediatric heart transplant programs in the country, and after 30 years, the program continues to rank among the best.

For nearly a month, 15-year-old Trinity Scott sported a black canvas messenger bag filled with favorite books, lip gloss or school supplies. Her bag even had a name, “Alice.” But far from any ordinary bag, what was inside was literally keeping her alive.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center tied for first place as the busiest heart transplant program by volume in the United States in 2019.

Two transplant programs at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt reached milestones in 2019 for performing record numbers of heart and liver transplantations in a calendar year.

“I didn’t even know I was sick. I’m thankful that Vanderbilt saved my life.”