Vanderbilt Transplant Center

VUMC performs its first transplant using rehabilitated lungs

For the first time at Vanderbilt, doctors have performed a transplantation with donated lungs that were rehabilitated using a procedure called ex vivo lung perfusion.

Kristie Kuzy decided to donate a kidney to a stranger. Her generosity initiated the first three-recipient kidney transplant chain in the history of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The amazing and improbable story of how it all fell into place

Flag-raising ceremony honors gift of organ donation

Eighty individuals donated the gift of their organs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center last year, more than any other hospital in the nation, and they and their families were saluted on April 16 at the 10th annual Donate Life Flag-Raising Ceremony.

By Matt Batcheldor

April 23, 2019

Transplant centers, patients unite to stop new organ sharing policy that threatens longer waits for a liver

Vanderbilt University Medical Center and 13 other highly regarded liver transplant centers have filed a lawsuit aimed at stopping Federal policy changes that are slated to take effect Tuesday, April 30, that will affect thousands of patients across the Southeast and Midwest waiting for donor livers.

By John Howser

Tim Lowell, here with his wife, Ginger, was Tennessee’s first total artificial heart transplant patient. He recently received a permanent donor heart.

March 28, 2019

First artificial heart patient gets permanent replacement

Tim Lowell of Hernando, Mississippi, received the first total artificial heart in the state of Tennessee when the cardiac surgery team at Vanderbilt Health placed the device in his chest on Sept. 26, 2018. The mechanical heart kept him alive for nearly three months until a matching human donor heart became available and he was transplanted on Dec. 16, 2018, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

By Matt Batcheldor

The United Voices of Vanderbilt Choir got the audience into the spirit at last week’s Celebrate the Difference WE Make Every Day!

March 14, 2019

Medical Center employees celebrated at festive event

There were inspirational songs from the United Voices of Vanderbilt Choir, a rollicking rock band, a roll call of achievements and heartfelt stories shared by grateful patients and their families during Celebrate the Difference WE Make Every Day! 2019, an appreciation event to honor all Vanderbilt University Medical Center employees.