MDNews - San Antonio

COVER FEATURE University Hospital Transforms Lives for Transplant Patients By Don Finley WITH MORE THAN 112,000 PEOPLE WAITING FOR A LIFESAVING ORGAN TRANSPLANT IN THE UNITED STATES, AND A SHORTAGE OF ORGANS FROM DECEASED DONORS, TRANSPLANT WAITING LISTS ARE GROWING INCREASINGLY LONGER. SAN ANTONIO'S UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL IS AMONG THE TOP TIER OF LIVER TRANSPLANT PROGRAMS IN TEXAS, AND AS ITS PROGRAM CELEBRATES ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY, THE HOSPITAL IS EXPANDING ITS THERAPIES BEYOND TRANSPLANTATION. family and friends were so surprised the next day that I was up and walking around. I am a different person." Today Wissen is back at work full time and enjoying simple things, such as long walks to the mailbox with her young granddaughter on her family's 12-acre property. Growing Beyond Liver Transplants During the past two decades, more than 1,300 patients at University Hospital have been similarly transformed after liver transplants. University Hospital ranks second in the number of transplants among the 14 programs in Texas that offer the procedure. And as the hospital's transplant program celebrates its 20th anniversary, the liver program is growing beyond just transplants. It has evolved into a team of specialists dedicated to treating a variety of liver and pancreas diseases, including cancer, in numerous ways. OBERTA WISSEN STILL shivers Seasoned transplant surgeons with when she remembers how cold University Transplant Center also pershe always felt and how thin form liver and pancreas cancer surgeries she'd become as a result of her routinely — 150 of these surgeries in failing liver. The overwhelming fatigue of 2012 — using their advanced training and her illness kept her in bed most days like a skills to help patients who aren't necessarily weight on her chest. transplant candidates. The surgeons are Two years ago, all that changed when part of a team of specialists — including Wissen, a 46-year-old receptionist with the medical oncologists, gastroenterologists, local school district in Elgin, radiation oncologists, TX — a small town 30 miles radiologists and otheast of Austin — underwent ers — that meets as a a liver transplant at University group once a week to disHospital. As soon as she awoke cuss each patient. in her room, surrounded by A s a result, some family, it was like being reborn, patients who begin as she says. transplant candidates "My husband was blown might be offered alternaaway by how my formerly tives. Others who weren't jaundiced skin now looked transplant candidates at normal, and my eyes were Roberta Wissen, 46, from Elgin, the start sometimes end TX, underwent a liver transplant at white again," Wissen says. "My University Hospital two years ago. up with new livers. R 6 | San Antonio MD NEWS I MDNEWS.COM "What I say to patients all the time is you don't come to us to get an operation. You come to us to get an opinion," says Kenneth Washburn, M.D., Surgical Director of the liver transplant program and professor of surgery at the UT Health Science Center. "If that opinion is that you should be put on the waiting list for a transplant, we'll do the necessary tests. We'll educate you so you have an understanding of why that might be an option. Then you can make a choice about what is right for you." If the choice is transplantation, patients can be assured the program is among the best. Not only does it have far more experience than most programs, it also specializes in highly challenging procedures, such as living-donor liver transplants. More living-donor liver transplants have been performed at University Transplant Center than at any other Texas transplant program. A 20-Year History of Transplants Liver transplants at University Hospital began in 1992 with the arrival of Glenn Halff, M.D., a San Antonio native who had previous experience launching a liver transplant program at New York University. Shortly after his return to San Antonio, Dr. Halff performed the first civilian liver transplant in south Texas. Dr. Halff, who now serves as Director of University Transplant Center and professor of surgery at UT Health Science Center, arrived to join a transplant team that had already gained a considerable reputation transplanting lungs, hearts and kidneys. The late J. Kent Trinkle, M.D., was a pioneer in the field of lung transplantation. In 1991, John Calhoon, M.D., performed a heart transplant on a 17-day-old girl — the youngest patient to date. Dr. Halff set to work assembling a large and highly skilled team. "The reason it is successful is because University Hospital

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