Matthew Bacchetta

Martin Montenovo, MD, left, and Wali Johnson, MD, perform a liver transplant in 2024. (photo by Erin O. Smith)
July 2, 2025

Scientific advances helping to increase the number of available organs for transplantation

These advances include emerging techniques of rehabilitating organs that would once have been discarded as unusable.

By Matt Batcheldor
Lung transplant patient Michelle Ankele-Yamashita. (photo by Erin O. Smith)
June 18, 2025

Transplant patient’s long journey brings her from the Aloha State to the Volunteer State

She was turned down by multiple transplant centers between Honolulu and Nashville, deemed too sick, before the Vanderbilt Lung Transplant Program accepted her as a patient.

By Matt Batcheldor
(iStock)
December 6, 2024

VUMC part of team developing advanced life-support tech for battlefield injured

Battlefield medics often have limited resources, time and expertise to provide life-sustaining, emergency care for those critically injured.

By Jill Clendening
Double-lung transplant patient Mike Boston and his wife, Kellie. (photo by Donn Jones)
April 8, 2024

Lung transplant patient, family glad they came to a place where ‘every single person cared’

Mike Boston was turned down by eight hospitals for a double lung transplant, which would be his second, because none believed he would survive the surgery. Finally, doctors at one medical center — VUMC — thought he might.

By Matt Batcheldor
Transplant patient Connie Rankin was cleared to return home to Memphis just in time for the holidays. (photo by Erin O. Smith)
December 14, 2023

VUMC performs its first combined lung and liver transplant

Connie Rankin of Memphis, Tennessee, received Vanderbilt’s first combined lung and liver transplant, which involved dozens of specialists, including transplant teams for both organs.

By Matt Batcheldor
Nicole Hunter was the first patient to receive the novel transplant. (photo by Erin O. Smith)
September 27, 2023

VUMC performs novel reoperative lung and kidney transplant

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has performed its first combined reoperative lung and kidney transplant.

By Matt Batcheldor
April 13, 2023

Process rehabilitates donor livers for transplantation

Vanderbilt research demonstrated that injured human donor livers declined for transplant can be recovered by cross-circulation between the human liver and a xenogeneic host, or animal platform.
By Matt Batcheldor
April 6, 2023

System repairs donor lungs for transplantation

A Vanderbilt team has discovered that donor lungs rejected for transplant can be repaired using cross-circulation with a xenogeneic host.
By Matt Batcheldor
September 29, 2022

Patient journeys from South Africa for lung transplant

Mervyn Joseph, who searched the world over for the best place to be considered for lung transplant, is thankful he found Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
By Matt Batcheldor
March 17, 2022

ECMO fellowship program provides lifesaving training

Vanderbilt's extracorporeal life support fellowship gives new doctors two years of hands-on experience with a lifesaving critical care tool, one that has only become more important during the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Matt Batcheldor
February 16, 2022

Multicenter team seeks to create at-home artificial lung system

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is part of a multi-institutional teem seeking to create an artificial lung system that patients with incurable lung disease can use at home.
By Matt Batcheldor
April 1, 2021

COVID recovery included long stay on ECMO, double-lung transplant

Zach Lloyd was only 37 years old with no pre-existing health conditions, but COVID-19 was bringing him within an inch of his life.
By Matt Batcheldor
November 18, 2020

Collaborative Vanderbilt Lung Institute launches

By Matt Batcheldor
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