Penn Medicine celebrates 60 years of being at the cutting edge of transplant surgeries

There was a big party at Penn Medicine on Tuesday as the team at the Transplant Institute celebrated 60 years of transplant surgeries.

Doctors and staff at the Penn Transplant Institute were pioneers when they started and they are still on the cutting edge with new robotics and AI technology.

“As of today, we have probably done over 7,700 kidney transplants,” Dr. Roy Bloom said.

The very first patient lived another 50 years with his new kidney and now thousands of patients come to Penn Medicine for liver, uterus and lung transplants.

Doctors at Penn explained that robotics and and AI are helping to make transplants even more routine and precise as well as creating quicker recoveries.

Penn has also continued to lead the way with the research that goes into making these surgeries easier and safer.

This includes performing surgeries on patients who might have been considered too sick for a transplant in years past.

Penn Medicine promises to keep advancing the field, but they hope everyone considers becoming an organ donor.

They told NBC10 that they can’t save as many lives if they don’t have as many donors.