Patient Stories

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Our organ transplant specialists are among the most experienced in the country. To request an appointment, call 310-825-2631.

Here are some inspiring stories from our transplant donors, recipients and staff:

Joe Patient Story Transplant

Cornea Transplant - Joe
Corneal transplantation, which replaces a patient's damaged cornea with donor corneal tissue, is the most common and most successful type of human transplant surgery.

Penelope Patient Stories Transplant

Berlin Heart – Penelope
Penelope Gordon was among those youngsters facing an uncertain future when she was airlifted to UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital after becoming desperately ill following a visit to her great-grandparent's house.

Brandie Patient Story
The young woman from Compton has dealt with health issues her entire life and faced death more than once. But now, she has been given a second chance to live and she is ready to take on the world.
Gaston and Luis Patient Stories
A life-saving kidney donation played out at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center when one Southern California corrections officer gave a kidney to another from a different facility.
Pam Patient stories
Three different families planned to donate their kidney, but each of these donors turned out to be incompatible with their loved ones.
Alan & Blyden Patient Stories
Friends since childhood but separated by years and geography, Alan Landros and Blyden Loutensock found each other again in a time of need.
Kidney Transplant Patient Story
A Michigan firefighter and an Air Force technical sergeant have one thing in common besides their public service and Midwest origins: They each donated a kidney to a complete stranger.
Kidney Donor Swap Patient Stories
UCLA Medical Center on Sept. 20 performed its first living donor kidney "swap," a procedure in which a loved one of a kidney transplant patient who is not compatible as a donor exchanges organs with another incompatible pair under an innovative new paired donation program.
Organ Donation Goals News Article

UCLA Organ Donation Goals

Patients such as Lois Tumanello, who received a successful lung transplant at 65, are proving that perhaps age does not always matter.

NY to LA Donor Transplant Patient Stories

NY-to-LA Living-Donor Transplant Chain

Innovative donor chain performed at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. 

Brian Liver Transplant Patient Stories

Liver Transplant - Brian

Brian Hinsley is a firefighter-paramedic who was diagnosed with a terminal liver disease over eighteen years ago. With the relentless support from his wife and his faith, he battled the disease until he received a liver transplant at the age of 40.

Leiauna Liver Patient Stories

Liver Transplant - Leiauna

Eight months into her pregnancy, Leiauna Anderson lost her child, and she almost lost her life as well. It took a liver transplant to save her.

Vinny Jesus Patient Stories

Intestinal / Liver Transplant – Vinny Jesus & Roberta

In 1984, UCLA was one of a handful of centers in the U.S. that was ready to explore the field of heart transplantation at a time when the technologies and therapies required to support such an innovative program were still being refined.

Jennifer Patient Stories

Double Lung Liver Transplant - Jennifer

Jennifer Golden, a 19-year-old college student from Las Vegas, got her Christmas gift early this year — a pair of life-saving lungs and a liver at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Dec. 4

5000th Liver Transplant Patient Stories

UCLA Performs 5000th Liver Transplant

On September 26, 2010, the UCLA Liver Transplant team performed their 5,000th liver transplantation.