Intermountain Health doctors performed 414 ‘record setting’ organ transplants in 2023

MURRAY — Last year was record setting year for the Intermountain Health Transplant Program, the hospital said Monday. A total of 414 organ transplants were performed in 2023, nearly half were kidney transplants.

Hal McNeil is one of those patients. “What they did, I can’t understand,” McNeil said while holding back tears as he was thanking his liver donor.

McNeil was diagnosed with non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis and had two tumors after doctors removed his gallbladder. Last January, doctors discovered another growth.

“On July 6, I received a call that there was a liver available, and I said no, I can’t do it I’m not ready…and my wife said, ‘No, this is a good time to meet the surgical team.'”

Intermountain Health said this is fifth consecutive year the hospital has been able to break organ transplant records. Procedures went up 38% from 2022 to 2023.

The hospital said its transplant program is one of the most aggressive when it comes to finding organ donations and is nationally recognize.

While patients like McNeil are grateful for the doctors at Intermountain, the most appreciation is focuses on donors, especially living donors.

Dr. Cara Hueser, a maternal fetal medicine doctor at Intermountain, has donated organs twice. Most recently donating her kidney, which went to a patient out of state.

“A lot of people don’t pass in such a way that they organs are appropriate for transplant so if I waited, I may miss the opportunity to help people,” she said.

According to Intermountain Health, more than 103,000 people are waiting for an organ donation across the U.S. Of those people, 885 are in Utah.

The hospital is encouraging Utahns to double check their organ donor status and even consider becoming a living donor.

For more information about their Transplant Program, click here.