The transplant era: a heart in 1985, a kidney in 2007, the close in 2023

1985 — 2 June 2023

Northern Indiana's first heart transplant: In 1985 a Lutheran Hospital team led by Dr. Michael Schatzlein performed the first heart transplant in northern Indiana — the scope most accounts give it; one Becker's Hospital Review profile of Schatzlein calls it Indiana's first heart transplant, and the two scopes stand here as their sources state them. Schatzlein, who had come to Fort Wayne in 1980 and built St. Joseph's open-heart program before moving to Lutheran, served as the hospital's chief of transplantation from 1984 to 1989, and his official biographies carry the program's early measure: at one point nine of the twenty-two longest-living heart transplant patients in the world had received their hearts under his direction. The kidney program followed a generation later: in June 2007 Dr. Kizilisik, of the same Indiana/Ohio Heart surgical lineage, performed the region's first kidney transplant, and Lutheran stood for years as the region's only heart and kidney transplant center. The era ended in stages, and the record is printed whole. In April 2019 the heart program suspended when its only transplant cardiologist left the state and a recruited replacement fell through; it later resumed under new leadership — a medical director of the heart transplant and ventricular assist device programs is named in the network's 2021 releases. On 2 June 2023 Lutheran ended heart transplant services for good, citing low volumes: ten transplants in 2022 and one in 2023, against a high of forty-one in 2015, in the federal transplant network's figures; kidney transplants had ended several years earlier. The advancement and its close are both Fort Wayne's record: for thirty-eight years a mid-sized Indiana city ran a heart transplant program, an undertaking most American cities its size never attempted.

Sources:

1. Becker's Hospital Review (11 May 2010) and Ascension Health biography (2016) — Schatzlein chief of transplantation at Lutheran Hospital 1984–1989; performed northern Indiana's first heart transplant in 1985; nine of the world's twenty-two longest-living heart recipients at one point transplanted under his direction. Becker's Hospital Review CEO profile (23 April 2012) — the wider scope, "Indiana's first heart transplant in 1985," carried in the entry as given.
2. AroundFortWayne (6 March 2011), Indiana/Ohio Heart release — Dr. Kizilisik performed the region's first kidney transplant in June 2007.
3. Becker's Hospital Review (15 March 2019), from WANE 15 News — the heart transplant program's suspension effective 1 April 2019 on the departure of its only transplant cardiologist; four patients then on the waiting list transferred.
4. Indianapolis Business Journal (5 June 2023) and Becker's Cardiology (2 June 2023) — the June 2023 end of heart transplant services; ten transplants in 2022 and one in 2023 against a high of forty-one in 2015 (Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network figures); kidney transplants ended several years before.