Today is National Donor Day

Today is National Donor Day, and a recording setting, leading transplant center is right in our backyard. The Miami Transplant Institute at Jackson Memorial Hospital led the nation in 2019 with 747 transplants.

"It all begins with the donors," said Rodrigo Vianna, Director of Transplant Services at Miami Transplant Institute. He says there are options for those that want to help. One stems from tragedy, when someone else's loved one dies, but another is the living donor program. Vianna says the facility's liver and kidney programs have active 'living donor' programs.

Vianna says organs harvested in this way often produce better results for recipients, since they're less injured -- and more quickly available.

MTI is now home to the largest and most comprehensive transplant programs in the United States for both adults and children, with patients traveling from across the globe seeking the expertise of one of the world's leading transplant centers.

"This is an amazing achievement which requires a tremendous effort and tireless dedication from all our faculty members and staff," said Vianna. "It reflects the great benefits of the partnership between UM and Jackson, but above all, it brings a new chance in life for hundreds of recipients and it is a great gesture of solidarity by hundreds of donor families and living donors."

"Our amazing multidisciplinary team is motivated not by the number of transplants we do, but by each individual story: a father restored to health to walk his daughter down the aisle, a child able to leave the hospital and return to a normal childhood, a wife and mother healthy enough to celebrate holidays with family again," said Luke Preczewski, Jackson's vice president for transplant. "The miracle of transplantation, possible only thanks to the profound generosity of organ donors and their families, is every one of these stories."

Listen to the complete interview with Dr. Rodrigo Vianna below:

Dr. Rodrigo Vianna, MD

Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content