Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, a hospital in the Baylor Scott & White Health system, has performed its 5,000th kidney transplant, the health system announced Oct. 8.
The Dallas hospital did its first kidney transplant in 1985. In the four decades since, the program has grown to treat patients from across Texas and beyond, according to the announcement.
"This milestone is really about people," said Giuliano Testa, who leads abdominal transplant at the medical center. "Behind every transplant is a patient who has endured uncertainty and hope, a family walking alongside them and, in many cases, a donor whose extraordinary generosity changed the course of another person's life."
Living donation is a large part of the program, which the health system describes as among the busiest living-donor kidney programs in Texas. Parents have given kidneys to their children and children to their parents, along with spouses, friends and donors who had never met their recipients, the release said.
Through paired kidney exchanges, the hospital has also arranged transplants for patients whose would-be donor was not a direct match for them, which the release said widens the options for people still waiting for an organ.
