Surgeons participate in record-setting day of organ transplantation at Baylor University Medical Center

One week ago, surgical teams took part in a record-setting day of organ transplantation at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. Surgeons on the medical staff performed nine organ transplants on seven patients in one calendar day. The successful day of surgeries broke the previous Texas record of eight organ transplants performed in one calendar day, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

The nine organ transplants took place at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas on Sept. 1. Three additional organs were transplanted in the early morning hours of Sept. 2, bringing the total to 12 organs transplanted in 24 hours. According to UNOS, an average of seven transplants are performed each day in Texas.

"I am very proud of this milestone," said Goran Klintmalm, MD, PhD, FACS, chief and chairman of Baylor Annette C. and Harold C. Simmons Transplant Institute. "This is a collaboration of more than 150 people coming together in a short amount of time to change the lives of these patients," Klintmalm added.

The surgeries performed during the record-breaking 24 hours included:
•One heart transplant
•Two lung transplants (one double lung, one single lung)
•Three kidney transplants
•Three liver/kidney transplants (multi-organ transplants)

The organs helped save the lives of nine patients, including a grandfather from Louisiana, a Texas state trooper, a North Texas veterinarian, and a young Atlanta resident living with kidney disease. All traveled to the Dallas hospital for their much-anticipated surgeries. Two of the transplants were from living kidney donors, in both cases a wife giving the gift of life to her husband.

The unprecedented event took more than 150 people on the surgical teams and support staff, working together, to accomplish the milestone.

"There are only a handful of centers that have the infrastructure, the personnel, and the ability to pull resources together in a short amount of time and that is why people come from around the world to Baylor," said Gonzalo Gonzalez-Stawinski, MD, chief of heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support for Baylor Dallas.

Baylor Annette C. and Harold C. Simmons Transplant Institute is one of the busiest multi-specialty transplant centers in the world. It is home to a highly experienced team of physicians and other clinicians who provide comprehensive transplant services. A leader in solid organ transplant in the United States, Baylor Annette C. and Harold C. Simmons Transplant Institute has successfully transplanted more than 8,200 organs over the last 30 years. In 2014, the team performed 102 cardiac transplants in one year, becoming one of the top two programs by volume in the country for heart transplantation, with excellent outcomes.

This record day of organ transplantation is the latest achievement for the program, which is credited with a number of milestones, including:
•First and only adult living liver donor program in North Texas
•First islet cell transplant in North Texas
•First certified ventricular assist device (VAD) program in the U.S.
•First matched, unrelated donor bone marrow transplant in Texas
•First adult liver transplant in the Southwest
•World's first extra-corporeal perfusion (bridge to transplant) using a genetically engineered pig liver, allowing the patient to survive and successfully undergo liver transplantation
•First heart/lung/heart "domino" procedure in North Texas, in which a patient with terminal emphysema receives a single heart and two lungs, while another patient with cardiomyopathy receives the good heart from the patient with emphysema
•First paired kidney donor transplant in North Texas
Not lost in this milestone is the sacrifice made by the donors. Their generous gift has made new life possible for these families, and without them transplantation would not be possible.

"This is the one good thing that comes out of tragedy, this helps bring hope to donor families," Klintmalm said. "The donors changed all these lives, we are just the messengers."