Amanda Atkins is sharing her story to give hope to those facing a life-changing transplant and to give thanks to her organ donor who made it all possible.

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.

For the second calendar year in a row, Vanderbilt Lung Transplant has the busiest program in the Southeast and leads the nation in innovation in organ preservation and regeneration.

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.

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.