Vanderbilt Surgeons Perform Three Liver Transplants in Single Night

Vanderbilt University Medical Center surgeons completed three adult liver transplants in one night, a feat that required the team to work around the clock to meet strict biological deadlines.

The procedures took place on the night of October 29. All three patients are recovering well, and the program is currently on track to break its own record for the most transplants performed in a single year. The surgical director, Dr. Martin Montenovo, noted that the program may complete 200 adult liver transplants this year.

The night began with one transplant scheduled for dinnertime. During that initial operation, Dr. Wali Johnson received a call in the operating room indicating that two additional donor matches had been found. Johnson described the situation as urgent, noting that the team usually tries to pause cases when such calls come in, but not always.

Montenovo was called into action immediately. The team had to work against time because a donated liver can stay on ice without blood flow for only about seven hours. Montenovo explained that the cells begin to die if they do not receive a blood supply quickly enough. Since a single transplant surgery can take between four and 12 hours, fitting three procedures into one night required careful coordination.

One of the recipients was Krista Owens, a resident of Chattanooga. Owens had been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. A few months before her surgery, her doctors told her that her liver was no longer functioning. Owens recalled the moment she learned the news, saying, “I think you have a way of fooling yourself with how sick you really are or aren’t. And then when you hear your liver is completely dead… it’s like what?”

Ovens received the phone call around 9 p.m. that she had been matched with a donor. She packed a suitcase with a sock, as she recalled, and headed straight for Nashville. She was taken directly to surgery upon arrival. Owens did not learn until after her procedure that she was one of three people receiving transplants that night.

Owens said she felt confident about choosing Vanderbilt because she had worked as a nurse at the medical center years earlier. Now, after the surgery, she said she has not felt this well in three years. “I just feel amazing. I haven’t felt this way in three years,” Owens said. Montenovo emphasized that these surgeries are complex and require a large team. He said his staff dropped other tasks to step in for Owens and the two other patients.

The success of these three overnight transplants brings the program closer to its annual goal. The team’s ability to manage multiple simultaneous operations within the seven-hour window for organ preservation demonstrates the scale of the recent surge in procedures at the medical center.