UW Health program celebrates 1,000th transplant

The UW Health cardiothoracic (heart and lung) transplant program has reached a milestone that only 10 hospitals in the nation have reached.

Recently, the program performed the 1,000th heart or lung transplant done at the hospital. This milestone capped off a record year in 2005 for the program, which performed 26 heart transplants and 43 lung transplants, the highest number of lung transplants in a single year in the history of the program.

Heart and lung transplant surgeries are among the most complex and lengthy surgical procedures and offer the hope of new life to people with severe cardiac and/or respiratory diseases.

The UW heart and lung transplant program performed its first heart transplant in 1973, first lung transplant in Wisconsin in 1988 and the first combined heart and lung transplant in 1989.