Staff Reports
Tampa General Hospital (TGH) and the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine have surpassed yet another lifesaving milestone in transplant operations. This year, the TGH Transplant Institute underwent its 1,500th successful adult heart transplant.
“Our 1,500th heart transplant underscores our position as a national leader in lifesaving organ transplants and helps to further our vision to be the safest and most innovative academic health system in America,” said Dr. Lucian Lozonschi, professor and chief of the division of cardiothoracic surgery in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and associate director of the TGH Transplant Institute.
Tampa General is now first in Florida and is top in the nation for high-volume, high-quality heart transplant operations. It is one of only nine medical centers in the United States to achieve this milestone.
During National Donate Life Month, this transplant milestone marks Tampa General’s decades-long commitment to serving as a medical leader in Florida and across the nation. Since completing its first heart transplant in 1985, the TGH Transplant Institute has continued to transform lives through medical improvements to quality world-class health care through scientific innovation.
Over 2,000 heart transplant operations are conducted each year in the United States. Most patients undergo heart transplant surgery for a variety of reasons, including dilated or ischemic cardiomyopathy, pulmonary high blood pressure, and congenital heart disease.
Since the start of the TGH Transplant Institute in 1974, over 12,000 transplant operations have taken place. Most recently, the TGH Transplant Institute performed 563 heart, lung, liver, kidney, pancreas and other organ transplant surgeries in 2021.
“Having recently surpassed 12,000 transplants, the dedicated health care professionals at the TGH Transplant Institute have been pursuing our mission to improve, extend and save the lives of the sickest members of our community for nearly 50 years’’ said Dr. Kiran Dhanireddy, executive director of the TGH Transplant Institute.
This medical achievement can be credited to the collaboration of TGH and USF Morsani College of Medicine surgeons and health teams who provide high-quality, lifesaving medical procedures in the Tampa Bay region.
According to Donate Life America, a nonprofit advocacy group, nearly 107,000 Americans are waiting for an organ transplant. Every 10 minutes, a person is added to the national list.
A single organ, eye and tissue donor can save and heal 75 lives, the group notes on its website. For more information and how to learn how to become an organ donor, visit Donate Life Florida.
