Doctors at Tampa General Hospital use advanced technology to benefit organ transplant recipients

Neil Bender is an associate professor of painting at the University of South Florida. Within the past year, Bender learned he needed a live transplant.

“From November of 2023 until now, it’s been kind of a roller coaster ride. Successful so far. Knock on wood,” said Neil Bender.

In July 2024, doctors found a match for Bender and performed the surgery.

“July 13th. Three days before my 48th birthday. It’s really weird. When you get over a certain age, the numbers of your birthday don’t mean as much, but I will never forget 48. I mean, it’s huge,” said Bender.

“Right now, we are standing in front of our preservation and perfusion center, where we preserve kidneys and livers for transplantation using advanced perfusion technology,” said Dr. Kiran Dhanireddy. He is the Vice President and Chief of the Tampa General Hospital Transplant Institute and the surgical director of liver transplantation.

“So there has historically been a shortage of organs available for transplant. And so the number of people that could potentially benefit from transplant, we weren’t able to meet that need. And this new technology actually allows us to cast a broader net for organs and transplant more patients using organs that in the past would not have been able to be utilized,” said Dr. Dhanireddy.

He explained how the technology will help more patients like Bender, compared to the traditional cooler, which moves organs from donor to recipient.

“With the introduction of new technologies, we were able to transport the organs from farther in a better, more controlled environment and then preserve them and perfused them with blood where they actually function,” said Dr. Dhanireddy.

The organ perfusion technology has been a game changer, helping doctors transport organs farther and actually use more donor organs.

“So I’ve been a transplant surgeon since I finished my training in 2010, and we have always been under constant pressure because of the shortage of organs. Today, our whole team can feel grateful for the utilization of these technologies because the patients who are suffering from liver disease and dying from liver disease. We can meet that need, and we can save more lives,” said Dr. Dhanireddy.

Lives like Bender’s.

“I am very lucky to have a second chance,” said Bender.

Dr. Dhanireddy said they are on pace this year to do about 275 liver transplants, making TGH one of the largest liver transplant programs in the country.