He helped build one of the leading kidney transplant programs in the country, both in terms of the number of transplants performed annually, and in long-term organ function and patient survival rates.

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. 

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.

While the surgery was a milestone for the hospital, for the pediatric patient and her family, it represented an answer to many prayers.