Baptist to celebrate 40th anniversary of Mid-South’s only adult heart transplant program
WHAT: Baptist Heart Institute will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first adult heart transplant conducted in the Mid-South with a luncheon honoring heart transplant recipients and advanced heart failure patients who are on the transplant list awaiting a new heart. This event will also mark 30 years of Baptist offering ventricular assist devices to help pump blood from the heart to the rest of the body as a treatment for heart failure. Examples of devices from the past 30 years will be on display.
WHEN: Friday, Oct. 31, 2025
11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
WHERE: FedEx Event Center
415 Great View Dr. E., Suite 103
Memphis, TN 38134
BACKGROUND: Baptist Heart Institute at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis offers comprehensive heart services, including the only certified adult heart transplant and adult extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) programs in the Mid-South. Since the program’s inception in 1985, Baptist has performed 498 adult heart transplants. Baptist also offers advanced cardiac care for patients through the Baptist Advanced Heart Failure Program. As a premier heart diagnostic, treatment and research facility, Baptist Heart Institute is the region’s largest and most comprehensive provider of mechanical and circulatory support devices and therapies. Baptist’s heart transplant team of cardiologists, surgeons, doctors, nurses and other dedicated staff members provide follow-up care to approximately 170 post-heart transplant recipients across five states.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES
· Dr. Dmitry Yaranov, director of advanced heart failure, transplant and mechanical circulatory support
· Dr. Brian Bruckner, heart transplant surgeon, surgical director of thoracic transplant and mechanical circulatory support
· Chip Fraizer, heart transplant recipient and school teacher
· James Ridgell, Baptist’s longest-surviving heart transplant recipient (32 years post-transplant)
· More than 45 heart transplant and ventricular assist device recipients, as well as patients on the heart transplant list
· Progressive display of 30 years of ventricular assist devices
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