Jack G. Copeland, M.D. , started the program and performed Arizona's first heart transplant on March 27, 1979. To date, 537 people have received heart transplants at UMC with some of the highest survival rates in the world: greater than 94 percent at one year after transplant, 90 percent at second year and 81 percent at five years. (The national average survival rate is 81.7 percent at one year after transplant, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing; international survival rate at one year is 80 percent, according to the International Society for Heart Transplant.)
UMC transplant recipients also have been among the world's "firsts" for other reasons, including, among other milestones, the world's first successful "bridge-to-transplant" using a total artificial heart, the world's first coronary artery bypass surgery on a transplanted heart, and the world's youngest and smallest person ever to use an implanted Thoratec heart-assist device while awaiting successful transplant.
"A lot of the things we do have a big impact," Dr. Copeland said. "But most of the credit in this business doesn't go to the doctors or the hospitals or their wonderful programs. It goes to the patients who were willing to place their faith in us and try making their lives better. The vast majority of them succeeded, survived and did well. So I think they deserve a huge amount of credit for being brave enough to go through this."
Beyond the operating room, UMC's team of six transplant surgeons, five coordinators, a nurse practitioner and social worker also make a major impact with pioneering contributions to the field of heart transplantation worldwide. Team members have published hundreds of research papers in major journals, trained residents to work in the field of transplantation and graduated at least five surgery residents who have gone on to found their own transplant centers throughout the United States. With colleagues around the world, Dr. Copeland founded the International Society for Heart Transplantation and the journal Heart Transplantation, both of which have grown and prospered. Today, the team is continuing to move forward with an even broader spectrum of work aimed at combating advanced heart failure, Dr. Copeland said.
"The transplant story is one that's going to continue to evolve and get better and better," he said. "Besides continuing our success with heart transplantation, we have to focus on the people who can't get transplants - often, because the wait for donated organs is too long. So we are working to create better medical therapies, new drugs and other interventions such as the artificial heart. If we can do something for people that's new, different and effective, that's very fulfilling."
EDITORS/MEDICAL WRITERS NOTE: Dr. Copeland will be out of town for two weeks beginning March 26. The AHSC Office of Public Affairs can help arrange interviews with him before that time, as his schedule allows. The transplant team's other surgeons, as well as several UMC heart transplant recipients from both Tucson and Phoenix, also are available for interviews.
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