Through a month-long series of events and promotions, Legacy of Hope (formerly the Alabama Organ Center) observes National Donate Life Month in April. The celebration – established by Donate Life America to promote organ donation – highlights the various perspectives of families and individuals touched by donation and transplantation.

The word xenotransplantation — or the concept of it — is new to most people and many have lingering questions for its future. Xenotransplantation is the transplantation of organs or tissues from an animal source into a human recipient. Researchers and surgeons have been working towards viable xenotransplant options for decades, in the hopes of being able to save more live and improve the quality of life of their patients.  

Surgeons with the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine reached an institutional milestone in February, surpassing 16,000 total organ transplants performed since its first almost 54 years ago.

On September 30, 2021, a University of Alabama at Birmingham medical team transplanted two pig kidneys into a brain-dead human recipient, a major step toward future pig-kidney transplants to people with kidney failure.

This week is National Infertility Awareness Week, and UAB Medicine is home to a program bringing new hope to those struggling with infertility: the Uterus Transplant Program.

University of Alabama at Birmingham Assistant Professor Saulat Sajjad Sheikh, MBBS Division of Transplantation is one of the first female transplant surgeons from her originating country, Pakistan.

“A kidney transplant…is extraordinarily powerful,” said Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, director of the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute (CTI), in a recent episode of ‘The Checkup’ podcast. “So is a liver, a heart, a lung—they all change people's lives. They all give life back.”

It is rare that the two largest transplantation societies choose two leaders from the same institution. But this year, University of Alabama at Birmingham nephrologist Vineeta Kumar, M.D., and transplant surgeon Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, have been named councilors at-large for the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, respectively.

Arnold G. Diethelm, former chair of the Department of Surgery and a leader in transplantation surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, died Jan. 28, 2021. Diethelm was a native of Baltimore, Maryland. His career at UAB began in 1967 when he joined the UAB Department of Surgery, upon the completion of his two-year fellowship at Harvard, at the invitation of John W. Kirklin.

Alan Spriggs, program manager of Authorization Development with Legacy of Hope, Alabama’s organ procurement organization, approached the Parsons family with this rare opportunity to be a part of something that could change the course of many lives. Parsons’ accident occurred in Montgomery, Alabama; but O’Hara had already made her way to Huntsville to be with their children and family when Spriggs connected with her on the phone. Spriggs asked if she would be open to talking to Locke about a potential study.

On the afternoon of April 25, 2018, Colin Tucker felt as though a railroad spike was being shoved through his chest.  

Due to a shortage of deceased-donor organs, living donation programs are a great way to meet the need for organs among those awaiting a transplant. Thanks to treatment advances by the UAB Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Institute (CTI) – along with a special program that helps donors navigate the transplant process – living kidney donation is easier than ever.