TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa General Hospital was able to cross off another milestone earlier this year after reaching 1,500 adult heart transplants.
The TGH Transplant Institute is one out of nine medical centers in the U.S. that have performed 1,500 heart transplants while also leading all hospitals in the state in the number of operations, hospital leaders explain.
“Our 1,500th heart transplant underscores our position as a national leader in life-saving organ transplants and helps to further our vision to be the safest and most innovative academic health system in America,” Dr. Lucian Lozonschi, associate director of the TGH Transplant Institute, said in a statement.
The hospital's first heart transplant was done by the institute in 1985. Around 2,000 of these kinds of transplants are done each year in the U.S.
The reason why they are so rare? Tampa General heart transplant surgeons replace an ailing heart for problems like dilated or ischemic cardiomyopathy, pulmonary hypertension and congenital heart disease.
“Being a part of a patients’ heart transplant journey is an honor and a privilege,” Dr. Benjamin Mackie, heart transplant medical director at Tampa General, explained in a statement. “To know that we have been part of transforming lives for 1,500 patients and their families makes this achievement deeply meaningful.”
So how many transplants have the Tampa-based hospital done? More than 12,000, according to hospital leaders.
In 2021 alone, the institute reportedly performed 563 organ transplants, including heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas.
“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’’ Dr. Kiran Dhanireddy, executive director of the TGH Transplant Institute, said in a statement.
Every 10 minutes, a person is added to the national list, with nearly 107,000 Americans waiting for a life-saving organ, according to TGH.
Donate Life America reports that more than 7,000 people die each year because of organs not being available.
To learn more about donating, visit Donate Life America's website.
