Vanderbilt Transplant Center

Vanderbilt transplanted 36% more hearts in 2024 than 2023. In 2024, 10 of the lifesaving procedures were performed on pediatric patients.

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.

After 35 years of tireless service to the people and patients of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy CEO and Chief Health System Officer, will step down from that role.

Hoetzenecker comes to Vanderbilt from the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, where he has been professor of Lung Transplantation and director of the Lung Transplant Program.

With the help of Vanderbilt and other transplant centers, Ukraine has developed a growing transplant program in the country in the last four years.

Vanderbilt’s adult heart, lung, liver and kidney transplant programs individually had record fiscal years, with 150 heart transplants, 90 lung transplants, 180 liver transplants and 333 kidney transplants. In addition, adult transplant teams performed three heart/lung transplants and four kidney/pancreas transplants.

The new policy changed liver allocations from a regional service area to an “acuity circles” system that assigns donor livers as far as 500 nautical miles away based on the acuity of recipients.