Tampa General Hospital Does Not Miss A Beat in Reaching Milestone of 1500 Heart Transplants

Tampa General and USF Health surgeons at the Transplant Institute celebrate the procedure as an example of TGH as a national leader in consistently providing advanced, life-saving operations.

Tampa, FL (April 1, 2022) – Tampa General Hospital (TGH) and the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine reached a milestone earlier this year with its 1,500^th adult heart transplant.

The TGH Transplant Institute is one of only nine medical centers in the United States to have performed 1,500 heart transplants and leads all Florida hospitals in the number of such operations.

“Our 1,500^th 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,” 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.

The TGH Transplant Institute conducted the hospital’s first heart transplant in 1985. Tampa General heart transplant surgeons replace an ailing heart for a number of reasons, such as dilated or ischemic cardiomyopathy, pulmonary hypertension, and congenital heart disease. About 2,000 heart transplants are done each year in the United States.

“Being a part of a patients’ heart transplant journey is an honor and a privilege,” noted Dr. Benjamin Mackie, heart transplant medical director at Tampa General. “To know that we have been part of transforming lives for 1,500 patients and their families makes this achievement deeply meaningful.”

Last year, the TGH Transplant Institute performed 563 organ transplants, including heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas. Since it began in 1974, the TGH Transplant Institute has performed a total of more than 12,000 transplants. A significant portion of those transplants were conducted by surgeons and medical teams from the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, thanks to the long-held close collaboration between Tampa General and USF Health.

“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.

Nearly 107,000 Americans currently are waiting for a life-saving organ. Every 10 minutes, a person is added to the national list, and more than 7,000 die each year because organs are not available in time, according to Donate Life America, a non-profit advocacy group based in Virginia. A single organ, eye and tissue donor can save and heal 75 lives, the group notes on its website. To become an organ donor, Florida residents can visit Donate Life Florida.

Potential heart transplant candidates are evaluated on an individual basis. For more information about the program, call 1-800-505-7769, press 1 for the heart transplant program and ask for the referral coordinator. To learn more about the Tampa General Transplant Institute, please visit:  https://www.tgh.org/services/transplant.

ABOUT TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL
Tampa General Hospital, a 1,041-bed non-profit academic medical center, is one of the largest hospitals in America and delivers world-class care as the region’s only center for Level l trauma and comprehensive burn care. Tampa General Hospital is the highest-ranked hospital in the market in U.S. News & World Report's 2021-22 Best Hospitals, and one of the top 4 hospitals in Florida, with five specialties ranking among the best programs in the United States. The academic medical center’s commitment to growing and developing its team members is recognized by two prestigious 2021 Forbes magazine rankings – America’s Best Employers by State, third out of 100 Florida companies and first among health care and social organizations and 13^th nationally in America’s Best Employers for Women. Tampa General is the safety net hospital for the region, caring for everyone regardless of their ability to pay, and in fiscal 2020 provided a net community benefit worth more than $182.5 million in the form of health care for underinsured patients, community education and financial support to community health organizations in Tampa Bay. It is one of the nation’s busiest adult solid organ transplant centers and is the primary teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. With five medical helicopters, Tampa General Hospital transports critically injured or ill patients from 23 surrounding counties to receive the advanced care they need. Tampa General houses a nationally accredited comprehensive stroke center and its 32-bed Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit is the largest on the West Coast of Florida. It also is home to the Jennifer Leigh Muma 82-bed Level IV neonatal intensive care unit, and a nationally accredited rehabilitation center. Tampa General Hospital’s footprint includes 17 Tampa General Medical Group Primary Care offices, TGH Family Care Center Kennedy, TGH Brandon Healthplex, TGH Virtual Health and 19 outpatient Radiology Centers. Tampa Bay residents also receive world-class care from the TGH Urgent Care powered by Fast Track network of clinics, and they can even receive home visits in select areas through TGH Urgent Care at Home, powered by Fast Track.  As one of the largest hospitals in the country, Tampa General Hospital is first in Florida to partner with GE Healthcare and open a clinical command center that uses artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to improve and better coordinate patient care at a lower cost.  For more information, go to www.tgh.org.

ABOUT USF HEALTH
USF Health's mission is to envision and implement the future of health. It is the partnership of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the Taneja College of Pharmacy, the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, the Biomedical Sciences Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs, and USF Health’s multispecialty physicians’ group. The University of South Florida is a high-impact global research university dedicated to student success. Over the past 10 years, no other public university in the country has risen faster in U.S. News & World Report’s national university rankings than USF. For more information, visit health.usf.edu.