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4502 Medical Drive, San Antonio, TX 78229 1-888-336-9633

DELIVERING INNOVATIVE CARE – THEN AND NOW

Construction of Bexar County Hospital District’s University Hospital in Alamo City’s South Texas Medical Center was completed in 1968.

University Hospital was strategically built adjacent to the UT Health Science Center Medical School to provide a place for healing, teaching and research at the hub of the medical center.

In April 2014, University Hospital opened a new 10-story, million-square foot Sky Tower with an expanded Emergency Department, 35 state-of-the-art surgical suites and 420 new private patient rooms.

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University Transplant Center, a partnership between University Health System and the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, has continuously delivered the highest level of care to patients with chronic organ disease since 1985. Our growing kidney, liver, lung and pancreas transplant programs have propelled our expert physicians and staff to lead us into the next phase of our expansion with specialty services in pediatric kidney and liver transplantation, liver and pancreatic cancer and tumor surgeries, advanced liver disease management, pulmonary hypertension, bronchoscopies, interventional pulmonary services and therapeutic endoscopy.

University Transplant Center has performed some of the most complicated cases in the region with excellent results. In 2015, the liver program’s patient and graft (transplanted organ) survival rates ranked top 10% in the nation and best in Texas. Our lung program’s survival outcomes were best in Texas and the amount of transplants performed were among the highest in volume in the nation. Our kidney program was best in South Texas and performed more kidney transplants in 2015 than

seen in its history. We are the only program in South Texas to offer live donor liver transplantation. And our robust research division is making revolutionary strides in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of solid organ disease, which is helping influence the future of medicine.

As the needs of our community change, we remain committed to providing patients, caregivers, referring physicians, nurses, social workers and providers with the highest level of care. With 10 satellite clinics throughout Texas and new partnerships with specialized healthcare providers such as Renal Associates, PA, The Texas Liver Institute, South Texas Renal Care Group and Texas Tech University Health Science Center El Paso, our patients are assured access to quality healthcare within reach.

For three decades, our faculty and staff have been, and continue to be, national leaders in their field and pioneers in the advancements of chronic organ disease treatment and transplantation. Our comprehensive center offers patients peace of mind as our focus then and now — restoring people to a better quality of life.

Dr. Caliann Lum joined the University of Texas Health Science

Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) as the director of Organ

Transplantation Programs and the first woman appointed to

the surgical faculty team in 1985. Lum credits Dr. J. Bradley

Aust, founding chairman of the surgery department,

for providing her the means to begin building Texas’ first

multi‑organ transplantation program. Her vision was to offer

kidney, heart, liver and pancreas transplants in one location.

No other hospital in Texas offered such a range of transplants

at the time. Dr. Lum was also instrumental in creating South

Texas’ first civilian organ donor program this same year. This

program is still going strong today.

UniversityTransplantCenter.com

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New Year’s Day

MLK Jr. Day

View full article at UniversityTransplantNews.com

4502 Medical Drive, San Antonio, TX 78229 1-888-336-9633 UniversityTransplantCenter.com

Juan Garcia Kidney Recipient, 1995

Referred by: Dr. Robert M. Saad, San Antonio, TX

Roosevelt Eubanks Kidney Recipient, 1999

Referred by: Dr. William Wortham, San Antonio, TX

Lloyd Parker Jr. Kidney Recipient, 2002

Referred by: Dr. Robert M. Saad, San Antonio, TX

M I L E S T O N E

University Transplant Center has performed 1,300 adult kidney transplants since 1985.

Transplant SuccessBy Cindy TumielSan Antonio E xpress -News Published August 16, 2002

Joan Wish has made the most of the gift she got nearly 33 years ago from a young man who died before his time.

In the last three decades, Wish married, established a career in interior design, cultivated a multitude of friends and volunteered on behalf of organ donation awareness.

She still thinks about the young wife who signed away the kidneys of her husband, who had no brain activity, to give Wish a chance at life. And even though the stranger’s donated kidneys have sustained her for so many years, Wish has never learned anything about the couple’s circumstances or identity.

“I’m still very sorry that he had to lose his life so that I could continue mine,” said Wish, now 72, who was a guest Thursday at University Hospital. “I don’t know that I would be here today without that surgery.”

Wish helped christen a 4,400 square-foot, revamped unit that will provide new diagnostic and treatment areas for 70 full-time members of the hospital’s transplant team.

The expansion was made possible through $750,000 in donations from the University Health System Foundation and former patient Brad Moore — who got a liver transplant two years ago — as well as his wife, Michele.

Part of the donation also opens an endowment that will be used to support faculty salaries at the publicly funded hospital.

Wish speaks volumes about how things have changed since 1970, when Dr. J. Bradley Aust, then chief of surgery at the virtually new University Hospital, performed the still-uncommon and risky transplant procedure.

Kidney transplants had been done in the United States since 1963; Wilford Hall Medical Center surgeons did the first in San Antonio that same year. Wish was the first successful transplant in University’s program, which Aust established after coming to San Antonio from the University of Minnesota in 1969.

Dr. J. Bradley Aust, founding chairman of the surgery department at UT Health Science Center

at San Antonio, performed South Texas’ first civilian kidney transplant to then 39-year-old

Joan Glicksman Wish in 1970. Post-transplant, Wish became an active volunteer, an advocate

for organ donor awareness, and mentor for other transplant recipients until her passing in

November of 2007.

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Groundhog Day

Super Bowl

Valentine’s Day

National Organ Donor Day

Ash Wednesday

Presidents’ Day



Sam and Sylvia LyonsKidney Recipient and Donor, 2012

Referred by: Dr. Terrance Fried, San Antonio, TX

Lauri Schaefer-Zapata and Mike Zapata Kidney Recipient and Donor, 2012

Referred by: Dr. Charles Nolan, San Antonio, TX

Taylor Holt and Mark YenshawAltruistic Kidney Donor and

Recipient, 2014

Referred by: Dr. Alfonso Chavez, El Paso, TX

M I L E S T O N E

University Transplant Center has performed 368 live donor kidney transplants since 1986.

Hospital’s big plans pay offBy Mark LinsalataSan Antonio Light Published October 3, 1985

Two San Antonio men have undergone successful kidney transplants at Medical Center Hospital in the first phase of an ambitious plan by the hospital to offer kidney, heart, liver and pancreas transplants.

No other hospital in Texas will offer such a range of transplants.

“We hope to be doing hearts by spring,” Dr. Caliann Lum, director of organ transplantation programs, said Wednesday.

Currently heart transplant candidates from San Antonio must travel to the Texas Heart Institute - St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston – or farther – for the procedure.

“In the next 12 months we will be doing livers,” Lum said.“Somewhere in there we will be offering pancreas transplants,

which we consider a more experimental procedure,” she said.Dallas Children’s Hospital is the closest facility currently doing

liver transplants, and only a handful of hospitals nationwide do pancreas transplants.

The 37-year-old surgeon trained in transplantation at the University of Minnesota also said Medical Center Hospital and the University of Texas Health Science Center had formed its own organ donor program, the first in a civilian hospital in South Texas.

The program will cooperate with the non-profit, independent South Texas Organ Bank but will focus more on procuring a variety of organs rather than concentrating on kidneys.

“The scaffolding is being laid for a much bigger organization,” Lum explained.

The kidney transplant operations mark the reopening and revitalization of the hospital’s previous kidney transplant program, which had done 50 procedures a year until it temporarily closed about 15 months ago.

Due to limited data recorded for our center between 1970 and 1984, the first live donor transplant

is estimated to have occurred in 1975. The reopening of the Organ Transplant Programs in

1985 marked the beginning of the pioneering multi-organ transplantation services at University

Hospital. Living donation is a selfless act to giving life and the quickest source to providing

excellent long-term survival for patients needing kidney transplantation.

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St. Patrick’s Day

Good Friday

Easter

Daylight Saving Time Begins



Christena CrawfordDouble-lung Recipient, 2010

Referred by: Dr. Cynthia Zamora, San Antonio, TX

Teresa GuilliamsDouble-lung Recipient, 2006

Single-lung, 2008

Referred by: Dr. Michael Natalino, San Antonio, TX

Gregory FrazerDouble-lung Recipient, 2009

Referred by: Dr. David Schenk, San Antonio, TX

M I L E S T O N E

University Transplant Center has performed 262 double-lung transplants since 1987.

Man gets new heart, lungsBy Marjorie ClappSan Antonio Express-News Published August 21, 1987

Medical Center Hospital doctors transplanted a heart and both lungs into a 29-year old man who faced death without the operation, the first of its kind in San Antonio.

Recipient Bruce Jones Jr., a former Roosevelt High School student, was in critical condition Thursday and on a respirator but awake and writing notes to his family after the Wednesday operation.

His life, however, will hang in the balance for at least two weeks, which is the most critical time for rejection of the organs to occur. If all goes well, doctors say, he could be discharged from the hospital within three or four weeks.

Only about 150 heart-lung transplants have been done worldwide. Heart and double-lung transplants may well offer hope in the future for saving the lives of selected victims of cystic fibrosis, an inherited disease causing mucus that plugs up the lungs, producing infection and also resulting in heart damage.

Performing the historic operation here was a surgical team headed by Dr. J. Kent Trinkle, professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Trinkle also led the team that performed San Antonio’s first heart transplant April 27, 1986. The woman who received the heart at that time, Catherine Hooker, then 56, is now doing aerobics and walking three miles a day.

“I hope it won’t be long before Jones is doing the same thing,” Trinkle said at a press conference.

Bruce Jones Jr. appreciates spending time with his

daughter, Corey Renee.

Dr. J. Kent Trinkle, pioneering transplant surgeon and head of cardiothoracic surgery at

UT Health Science Center at San Antonio from 1972 through 1994, performed South Texas’

first heart/double-lung transplant in 1987. This was one of only four surgeries of its kind

performed in the United States that year and one of 150 worldwide since the procedure was

first attempted in 1967.

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World Health Day

April Fools’ Day

Passover

Earth Day

Tax Day

Donate Life Blue & Green Day

Passover Ends



Alexandria MartinezKidney Recipient, 2006

Referred by: Dr. Mazen Arar, San Antonio, TX

Ashton Porter BalyeatKidney Recipient, 1999

Referred by: Dr. Said EIshihabi, Marietta, GA

Lee PetersonKidney Recipient, 2002 & 2008

Referred by: Dr. Raafat Porter, Norfolk, VA

M I L E S T O N E

University Transplant Center has performed 223 pediatric kidney transplants since 1988.

Transplant patient sets stage for other kidsBy Mark LinsalataSan Antonio Light Published February 1988

The first child to undergo a kidney transplant at Medical Center Hospital in recent years is being hailed as a pioneer in what promises to be a wide range of transplants available for children at the hospital.

The Floresville boy, Marcelo Castro, 7, who weighs just 33 pounds because of complications of kidney disease, ate his first banana Wednesday as he rapidly recovered from the procedure performed a week ago.

“We’re really happy it happened,” the boy’s father, Marshall Castro, 28, said Wednesday in the intensive care unit at Medical Center.

The child’s mother, Rachel Castro, 25, was at the family’s home recuperating from donating one of her kidneys to her son. The boy’s own kidneys were deformed at birth, and the child began suffering from failing kidneys when only three months old.

“He’s a pioneer because he is setting the stage for other families who will follow,” Project ABC Executive Director Marian Sokol said. “Hopefully, it will not just be pediatric kidney transplants. It will also be livers and hearts.”

The boy’s kidney specialist, Dr. Sudesh Makker, confirmed that liver and heart transplants for children were expected to be performed soon at Medical Center and that pancreas transplants were also possible.

“The facilities exist now to do these things, and we have the appropriate staff to do them,” Makker said.

Marcelo looked happy and stuffed Wednesday as he rested in bed after downing a hearty lunch of spaghetti and meatballs topped off with a banana for dessert – a treat the child had not previously been allowed because his kidneys were unable to filter out the high amount of potassium found in the fruit.

Dr. Caliann Lum, founding director of the transplant programs, performed University

Hospital’s first pediatric kidney transplant on then 7-year-old Marcelo Castro in 1988.

Marcelo was born with a rare condition called bilateral renal hypoplasia. He weighed only

33 pounds at the time of surgery when his mother became his living kidney donor a week

after his birthday.

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Cinco de Mayo National Nurses Day

Mother’s Day

Armed Forces Day

Memorial Day



Larry LoikaSingle-lung Recipient, 2009

Referred by: Dr. Luis Angel, San Antonio, TX

Lee KellySingle-lung Recipient, 2000

Referred by: Dr. David F. Pohl, Austin, TXHolding Oscar Wilde Photo courtesy of Pamela Martin Lind

Maria CastilloSingle-lung Recipient, 2010

Referred by: Dr. Kenneth Terrell, Fredericksburg, TX

M I L E S T O N E

University Transplant Center has performed 300 single-lung transplants since 1988.

Dr. J. Kent Trinkle performed South Texas’ first single-lung transplant in 1988. This was one of

only 33 lung transplants performed in the United States that year. Trinkle also made scientific

history by becoming the first surgeon in the world to treat pulmonary hypertension and the

first in North America to treat emphysema with single-lung transplantation.

A close call with deathBy Janet WilsonAustin American-Statesman Published February 10, 2002

Lee Kelly nearly died on Valentine’s Day, 1999.

Two days before, she had gone to a doctor’s appointment. Weak and short of breath, she was afraid she was headed for the hospital. She had even packed a bag.

But she wasn’t totally honest with her doctor about how she felt, so he sent her home, telling her to come back Monday.

By Sunday morning, Valentine’s Day, she had no energy, like she was “free floating.”

She called Kim Tyson, a longtime friend who lived nearby. Tyson rushed to Lee’s house and called EMS, who arrived just in time, as Lee was going into respiratory failure.

Although Lee had quit her Trues years earlier, emphysema continued destroying tiny air sacs in Lee’s lungs that normally exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. As her condition worsened, less oxygen and more carbon dioxide stayed in her system. She was short of breath and very weak. Emergency medical technicians tried to stabilize her, rushing her to Seton Hospital’s emergency room. A tube, attached to a ventilator, was placed down her throat to her lungs, allowing the machine to breathe for her. Versed, Ativan and morphine kept her quiet, sedated and still.

“It was a really scary time,” remembers Tyson, who followed Lee to the hospital. “She was so vulnerable.”

For two weeks, Lee lay in intensive care. Her brother Rich flew down from her hometown of Baltimore, sitting by her side from morning to night. Holding her hand, he told her how much her mother and Jack and Kris and Pat and Linda (her brothers and sisters-in-law) loved her. And he prayed.

“Her condition was so critical I was afraid to leave her side,” Rich Kelly says.

Friends dropped by, but Lee, still unconscious, never knew. Twice priest gave her last rites.

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Flag Day

Father’s Day



Sonia SalinasLiver Recipient, 1998

Referred by: Dr. Ronald Szykowski Syracuse, New York

Suzanne GargiuloLiver Recipient, 1996

Referred by: Dr. Alejandro Coronado San Antonio, TX

Gloria D. EspinosaLiver Recipient, 1998

Referred by: UHS Emergency Department

M I L E S T O N E

University Transplant Center has performed 1,430 adult liver transplants since 1992.

Dr. Glenn Halff, Director of University Transplant Center, performed South Texas’ first civilian

liver transplant and launched the region’s long awaited liver transplant program in 1992.

Since its inception, the program has provided life-saving transplants for both adult and

pediatric patients. In recent years, the program has expanded its services and partnerships

to become an all-inclusive clinic for patients with advanced liver disease.

Woman receives liver transplantBy Don FinleySan Antonio Express-News Published December 3, 1992

A long-awaited liver transplant program for civilians finally was launched in San Antonio with the successful transplant operation involving a 45-year-old nurse’s aide from Canyon Lake, officials revealed Wednesday.

Zenobia Clary received a new liver in a 16-hour operation Nov. 16 at Medical Center Hospital. She was listed in fair but guarded condition Wednesday.

Another half-dozen patients are candidates for the procedure, and a second transplant could be done within two weeks, officials said.

“I think it’s a tremendous benefit for the people of San Antonio and South Texas,” said Dr. Glenn Halff, assistant professor of surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Halff headed the operation team.Clary’s liver was destroyed by hepatitis C. Her husband, Rick

Clary, said his wife became ill in September.“At first, she was just real tired all the time. Then her stomach

started swelling up. She got kind of scared and went to the doctor in San Marcos, and he referred her to Dr. Halff,” her husband said.

No information about the human donor was disclosed. Halff, a San Antonio native and the son of Alamo Title Co. President

Alex Halff, was recruited by the health science center in July.

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Independence Day



Jimmy EddingtonLiver/Kidney Recipient, 2015

Referred by: Dr. Pradeep Kumar, Austin, TX

Inocencio OsoriaLiver/Kidney Recipient, 2007

Referred by: Maryann Kashi, DO, Orlando, FL

Narcisco Luna Jr. Liver/Kidney Recipient, 2012

Referred by: Dr. Heather Banks, New Braunfels, TX

M I L E S T O N E

University Transplant Center has performed 116 combined liver/kidney transplants since 1994.

Resurrected Days, Resurrected NightsBy Brad DodsonHepatitis Volume 4. No. 1 Published January/February 2002

After overcoming obstacles such as drug addiction and jail time, music legend Freddy Fender now faces hepatitis C and kidney failure in a fight for his life.

To his fans, Freddy Fender is a Southern blues legend. Some might even call him immortal if they did not know the irony attached to the word. Because — as Freddy’s true fans know — failing kidneys and a battle with hepatitis C have brought this beloved star down to Earth in a fight for his life.

On a recent Saturday afternoon in Louisiana, Freddy’s fans packed themselves into the main foyer of the Isle of Capri Casino — ignoring the lure of the slot machines just feet away — just to catch a glimpse of him before his evening concert. A rumor has circulated that this might be the last public performance in a career that has spanned five decades, and it is hard to tell who would miss the other more: Freddy or his fans.

“It gives me a feeling of professional accomplishment,” Freddy says of the assembling throng who are waiting to rush the concert hall for the best seats, “and at the same time, a humble feeling of gratitude.”

When the wait is finally over, and Freddy — guitar slung over his shoulder — strolls on stage and up to the microphone, it seems as if talk of his early demise is certainly premature, until he reminds the audience himself.

“I’m very happy to be here tonight... Of course, I’m very happy to be anywhere tonight!” he proclaims before breaking into his first song of the night — the appropriately titled Tell It Like It Is. Before the show is over, Freddy will have everyone out of their seats and dancing in the aisles.

Dr. Glenn Halff performed South Texas’ first civilian combined liver/kidney transplant in 1994.

This operation was one of only 86 combined liver/kidney transplants performed that year in

the United States. Today, University Transplant Center is ranked in the top 10% in volume out

of 122 centers in the nation offering this type of procedure.

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Marina GarzaKidney and Pancreas Recipient, 2011

Referred by: Dr. Robert Szewc, San Antonio, TX

Juanita Perez Kidney Recipient, 2006

Referred by: Dr. Robert Szewc, San Antonio, TX

Isabel SifuentesKidney Recipient, 2015

Referred by: Dr. Ronald W. Hamner, San Antonio, TXIsabel and Juanita are sisters and survivors of polycycstic kidney disease.

M I L E S T O N E

University Transplant Center has performed 45 kidney/pancreas transplants since 1995.

A second chance at lifeBy Christiane L. Dahl, APRAdelante Published April 1995

For University Hospital transplant recipient Terri McCrae, Easter and its message of rebirth had a special meaning this year. The new kidney and pancreas she received at University Hospital have given the severely diabetic woman what she calls a “second chance at life.”

On Monday, April 3, 1995, McCrae, a San Antonio resident for 20 years, made history as the first person to receive a combined kidney/pancreatic transplant at a civilian hospital in Central and South Texas.

The 34-year-old woman received her new kidney and pancreas during a seven-and-a-half hour transplant operation at University Hospital. Dr. Robert M. Esterl Jr., transplant surgeon at University Hospital and assistant professor of surgery, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, led the 11-member surgical team who performed the uncommon combined organ transplant.

McCrae is doing well after her successful transplant and is expected to go home by the beginning of May.

“To receive a second chance at life at 34 years old is a blessing,” McCrae said. “The opportunity was given to me and I’m glad I was able to take it. I am so thankful to Dr. Esterl and to God, for He is really responsible for everything. Life is going to be different.”

A transplant was McCrae’s only hope of controlling the progression of her debilitating complications from Type I insulin-dependent diabetes, which she has had since she was 10 years old. She was suffering from the devastating effects of kidney failure, retinopathy (eye disease), neuropathy (decreased feeling in the feet), bladder neuropathy (the bladder empties slower than normal) and gastroparesis (slow emptying of the stomach, which causes nausea).

Transplant surgeon and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education at UT Health

Science Center at San Antonio, Dr. Robert M. Esterl Jr., performed the first civilian combined

kidney/pancreas transplant in South Texas to then 34-year-old Terri McCrae in 1995. This was

McCrae’s only hope after suffering the effects of kidney failure, retinopathy, neuropathy, and

gastroparesis.

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Patriot Day

Labor Day



Morelia RangelLiver Recipient, 2001

Referred by: Dr. Francisco Cigarroa

Alan RangelLiver Recipient, 2000

Referred by: Dr. Francisco Cigarroa (pictured in center)

M I L E S T O N E

University Transplant Center has performed 111 pediatric liver transplants since 1997.

University Health System performs 100th liver transplantBy Jennifer MilikienInfoline Published December 22-28, 2000

For the first time since the University Health System and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) Liver Transplantation Program began in 1992, 100 liver transplants have been performed in a single year.

Only seven hospitals in the entire country performed 100 or more liver transplants last year. This achievement places the Health System in some very good company, including Mt. Sinai Medical Center, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and UCLA Medical Center.

The 100th liver transplant recipient is Alan Rangel, who celebrated his first birthday on Thursday, December 7. Because of a genetic disorder, both he and his 4-year-old sisters need liver transplants. His sister is still on the waiting list, and there are currently about 15,000 people in the United States waiting for liver transplants.

UTHSCSA President Dr. Francisco Cigarroa performed Alan’s transplant.

Alan’s transplant is just half of the exciting equation. Director of organ transplantation at University Hospital, Drs. Glenn Halff and Robert Esterl split the donated liver and transplanted the majority of the organ into the hospital’s 99th liver transplant recipient for 2000, a 61-year-old woman. The outcomes for liver transplant patients at University Hospital are significantly better than the national averages. In fact, the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) reports the transplants at University Hospital have significantly higher survival rates than would be expected give the characteristic of the recipients and donors.

Dr. Francisco G. Cigarroa, surgical director of the pediatric transplantation programs and

Dr. Robert M. Esterl Jr. performed South Texas’s first civilian pediatric liver transplant in 1997.

Alan Rangel (pictured below) was University Transplant Center’s 100th liver transplant

recipient in 2000. He and his sister were transplanted nearly 5 months apart when they were

toddlers due to an inherited disorder. We are currently the only pediatric liver transplant

program in South Texas.

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Halloween

Columbus Day



Maggie VoigtSplit-liver Recipient, 2015

Referred by: Carl Fr ank Georgetown, T X

Alice DriskillLiver Recipient, 1990

Mentor and Volunteer

Hayden CastaldoSplit-liver Recipient, 2002

Referred by: Dr. Naveen Mit tal San Antonio, T X

M I L E S T O N E

University Transplant Center has performed 170 split-liver procedures since 1997.

Drs. Glenn Halff, Francisco G. Cigarroa, Robert M. Esterl, and Air Force transplant surgeons

performed the first split-liver procedure in South Texas, in which two patients benefited from

a single liver donor in 1997. Since this time, 148 adult and pediatric patients have benefited

from receiving split-liver transplants.

Split liver transplant benefits two patientsBy Will SansomThe News, Volume XXX Number 8 Published February 21, 1997

For the first time in the state of Texas, a donated liver has been split and successfully transplanted into two separate liver transplant recipients.

Dr. Glenn Halff, director of organ transplantation programs at the Health Science Center; Dr. Francisco Cigarroa, assistant professor of surgery at the Health Science Center; and Dr. James Eason of Wilford Hall Medical Center split the liver of an organ donor. Dr. Halff transplanted the larger portion of the liver into a middle-aged female and Dr. Eason transplanted the smaller portion into a 5 month-old-boy.

The surgeries were performed on Jan. 8. Dr. Halff performed his eight-hour surgery on the first recipient at University Hospital, and the operation on the second recipient was performed at Wilford Hall.

The second recipient’s father is in the U.S. Marine Corps and is stationed in Southern California. Wilford Hall Medical Center is the transplant center for all military-related liver transplant operations and, as a military dependent, the child was sent to San Antonio for the surgery.

“The liver is unique in its ability to continue to grow to appropriate size in both recipients,” Dr. Halff said. “Dr. Eason and I had recently discussed the feasibility of doing a split liver transplant, and the health of this organ in this particular donor, together with the severity of the illness of the patients, seemed to make this an ideal time to try this procedure.

“There is a severe shortage of donors,” Dr. Halff continued, “and this organ-splitting procedure can help us more effectively deal with the shortage of organs. Patients are frequently dying while they are waiting for a transplant. This is one innovation that can help save at least some lives each year.

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Thanksgiving Day

Veterans’ Day

National Donor Sabbath Begins

Election DayDaylight Saving Time Ends

National Donor Sabbath Ends



Hannah Parker and Lori HenkLiver Donor and Recipient, 2014

Referred by: Dr. Luis Armstrong Corpus Christi, TX

Amanda McMillanAltruistic Living Liver Donor, 2015

Scott McMillanLiver Recipient, 2011

Referred by: Dr. Ian Thompson San Antonio, TX

M I L E S T O N E

University Transplant Center has performed 35 live liver donor transplants since 1999.

Converge Donating body parts seemed unreal – Especially if the donor were still aliveBy Amanda GallagherThe Mission Published December 2002

A team of surgeons hovered over a body, meticulously separating blood vessels and tying bile ducts. They removed a large portion of a liver, wheeled it into the next room, and gave it to Raymond Barnes. The transplant would end over a decade of health problems.

Meanwhile, doctors in the first operating room tended to the donor. But this patient wasn’t headed to the morgue- she was still very much alive.

In an incredible, but increasingly popular, procedure, Kristin Barnes donated 64 percent of her liver to her father. But unlike traditional organ donation, Barnes was healthy and expected to survive.

She is one of hundreds of people who have participated in living-related organ donation — a process that’s shortening the endless organ waiting list and saving scores of lives.

Kristen Barnes grew up in an ordinary household. She was the middle of three daughters and had a great relationship with her dad. “I was sort of the honorary boy,” Barnes said. “I was always the one who went fishing with him. I helped him fix things around the house.”

But she never thought she’d save his life. Her father, Raymond Barnes, developed liver disease almost 40 years ago. “I acquired it through the use of a chemical, but no one is sure which one,” Raymond said. “I did nuclear weapons maintenance in the army. We used a lot of cleaning solvents from different chemicals. Quite a few of us had this problem.”

Dr. William Kenneth Washburn, surgical director of the liver transplant program, and

Francisco G. Cigarroa performed South Texas’ first living liver donor transplant in 1999. Only

12 such surgeries had taken place in Texas prior to this time. University Transplant Center is

currently the only center in South Texas offering live liver donation and the second-highest

program in volume in Texas.

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Christmas Hanukkah

Christmas Eve

New Year’s EveKwanzaa



Rachel UnionKidney Recipient, 2014

Referred by: Dr. Ting-Chi Lu, Austin, TX

Andrew JacobsonKidney Donor, 2014

Part of kidney paired donor exchange.

Gloria TrevinoAltruistic Kidney Donor, 2014

Rachel’s match.

M I L E S T O N E

University Transplant Center has performed 29 kidney paired donor exchanges.

Our first kidney paired donor (KPD) exchange was executed in 2007. KPD is a transplant

option for living donors who were found to be a poor match with their intended recipient.

Through KPD, University Transplant Center has been able to partner with hospitals from all

over the United States to help arrange “kidney swaps.”

A lifesaving swap has two families miles apart feeling very gratefulBy Stephanie Serna – ReporterKSAT 12 News Reported November 26, 2015

But instead of feeling down on his luck, he is grateful to a man in New York after receiving a new kidney from him. Next to him is Kraft’s daughter, Amanda DeSoto, 35, who is also recovering after she donated her kidney to that man’s brother.

“I really want to thank the Lord, said Kraft. “I have a lot to be thankful for.”

Three years ago, Kraft’s Kidneys failed and DeSoto wanted to help by donating her kidney to him.

“I can’t explain it,” said Kraft. “It’s deep love, evidently when you are willing to risk your life and give everything you’ve got for you dad, it means a whole lot.”

However, DeSoto was not a match for her father. At the same time, in New York, Eric O’Brien had been hoping to donate

his kidney to his brother, Keith O’Brien, but he was not a perfect match for him.

So, through a national “paired exchange” program, De Soto’s kidney went to Keith O’Brien.

And, his brother, Eric O’Brien’s kidney went to DeSoto’s dad, Jim Kraft.“Thank you,” said Keith O’Brien, addressing Amanda DeSoto. “It’s an

unbelievable gift that you have given to me and that my brother has given to your father. You guys are heroes.”

“I think it’s a huge testament to how much of heroes our donors are because half of the kidney donors from the U.S. come from living kidney donors,” said Dr. Colleen Jay, director of the Living Kidney Donor Program at the University Health System. “Without living donors, we wouldn’t be able to do kidney transplants as we know it.”

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