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Tampa General Hospital is utilizing organ perfusion — an innovative technology that essentially keeps organs alive outside the body — giving more people the chance to live long and healthy lives.
TAMPA, Fla. – In Florida, there are more than 5,000 patients and their families waiting for a call that an organ is ready for them. Tampa General Hospital has around 1,000 patients on that list.
Now, new technology is causing the phone to ring more often.
"Last week we transplanted a 78-year-old liver. And, that's a pretty advanced age to use as a donor. And, they have historically been used. But, we had a lot more confidence using this donor," said Dr. Kiran Dhanireddy, the chief of the TGH Transplant Institute.
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That confidence comes from organ perfusion, innovative technology that essentially keeps a donated organ alive outside the body, giving surgeons time to identify organs they previously may have discarded, because of age or medical issues. Dhanireddy explained advancements in cooling and transporting organs are helping remove many geographical limitations.
"That allows us to travel farther for donors, to use donors for medically complex individuals, patients who are older, patients who have medical problems that we would not have used in the past," he said. "So, we're casting a much broader net now, eastern half of the United States, to find more appropriate organs to transplant into patients here in Tampa to save more lives of really the sickest patients in our community,"
Dhanireddy said they routinely get organs from states a thousand miles away.
The culmination of all of these advancements has led to a record number of transplants, 756 in 2023. It makes TGH fourth in the nation for the number of organ transplants.
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"So really transformative technology and what we're doing at Tampa General, utilizing it, is changing the face of organ transplantation in our community," said Dhanireddy. "And, that's really opened the door for a lot of people that might have been disadvantaged in getting an organ and living a long and healthy life."
Steve Hilfiker got a second chance at that long healthy life when he received a heart transplant at TGH in 2020.
"I couldn't wait for the heart for the surgery. I knew that I was dying," he said.
He called perfusion, which wasn't available when he was waiting for a heart, a game changer.
"Knowing firsthand what it would have felt like waiting for an organ for your call to come in. I mean, some people wait years and never get the call and pass. Now they have more hope. That increases hope and increases the faith that they have," said Hilfiker.
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He has used his second act to advocate and bring awareness to organ donations.
"You're gonna donate your organs somewhere. You're going to donate them to the ground, to the urn, or to someone like me," said Hilfiker.
Even with all of the recent advancements in medicine, there are so many patients and their families waiting for the call. TGH has around 1,000 patients on its transplant list.
Change is also coming to the National Organ Donation system, following the federal government’s recent decision to step in and overhaul flaws in the system. Dhanireddy said the current system is outdated.
He said advancements in medicine and modernization to the national donation system, could transform organ transplants.
"Were’ going to, hopefully, over the next couple of years, transform how we do everything from allocating the organ to the logistics around transporting the organs from donor hospitals to transplant centers like Tampa Generalm" Dhanireddy said.
"Ultimately, we think that, these technologies will allow for national sharing of organs so that if the resource of organs wasn't based on where you lived, and there wouldn't be any discrepancy in availability of organs," he said.
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