UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital has reached a milestone in transplant care, completing more than 10,000 organ transplants since its first procedure in 1962. In 2025 alone, the hospital marked its 1,000th lung and heart transplants, 5,000th kidney transplant, and 3,000th liver transplant.
The evolution of surgical techniques and technology has played a significant role in this achievement. Procedures that were once considered experimental have become safer and less invasive over time. Recovery periods for patients have shortened significantly compared to earlier decades.
“When we were performing transplants in the 80s, the procedures were far more invasive and every transplant carried uncertainty,” said Dr. Igal Kam, who served as chief of transplant surgery at UCHealth from 1988 to 2016.
One early living donor, Patty Newman Coy Byrn, donated a kidney to her brother in 1966 when she was just 22 years old. She recalled her experience: “They cut me from the middle of my stomach to the middle of my back, and they took a rib out to get the kidney out so it wasn’t damaged.” Now aged 82 with an extended family spanning children to great-grandchildren, Patty’s story contrasts with modern practices where surgeries are minimally invasive.
Sam Carter underwent robotic-assisted surgery to donate her kidney in December 2025. Reflecting on her experience she said: “I spent only one night in the hospital after my surgery, and when you think about it — although you’re doing something really big, the surgery itself is somewhat small. The incisions are small and recovery is fast. It’s incredible we get to do this, to give an organ so that someone else can start their life over.”
Robotic-assisted procedures have been introduced at UCHealth over recent years: starting with kidney donors in 2020, expanding to recipients by 2021 and liver transplants by 2023. Surgeons use robotic arms for greater precision through smaller incisions which improves recovery times for both donors and recipients.
“Today, UCHealth performs robotic-assisted kidney transplants, multi-organ surgeries, and complex living donor procedures—all with dramatically shorter recovery times and higher survival rates,” said Dr. Trevor Nydam, current chief of transplant surgery at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital. “Decades of innovation have really changed the game for transplant surgery.”
According to data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), there are more than 120,000 people across the United States waiting for organ transplants.
UCHealth has developed one of the largest living donor programs nationally due partly to advances making donation easier for potential donors.
“Making living donation more accessible has the power to change the trajectory for patients who might otherwise wait too long,” Dr. Nydam said. “By continuing to innovate and make donation safer and less disruptive to donors’ lives, we hope more people will consider this extraordinary act of generosity.”
In deceased donation cases recent advances include organ perfusion technology which preserves organs outside the body while allowing clinicians time to assess their viability before transplantation—helping reduce uncertainty around outcomes.
UCHealth operates what it describes as the largest comprehensive transplant center in its region—the Rocky Mountains—and remains unique locally as a provider offering all solid organ transplants including heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas.
