Grosklaus hadn’t been able to work with his cousins at the family marsh for two years as he waited for two new organs. UW Health
Wisconsin resident Gary Grosklaus was eager to bring in the fall’s cranberry harvest. He hadn’t been able to work with his cousins at the family marsh for two years as he waited for the gift of two new organs.
That gift arrived in the form of a simultaneous pancreas–kidney transplant last February, marking the noteworthy milestone of 20,000 organs transplanted at the UW Health Transplant Center.
“Every transplant we do is significant for us and life-changing to the patient, and their successful recovery is what motivates us to do this work,” says transplant surgeon Jennifer Philip, an assistant professor of surgery at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
The UW program performed its first kidney transplant in 1966 and is now the first and only transplant program in the Midwest to surpass 20,000 transplanted organs.
As of February 20, the day of Grosklaus’s surgery, UW physicians had transplanted 12,402 kidneys, 3,167 livers, 1,971 pancreases, 1,449 lungs, 981 hearts, and 30 intestines. Patients traveled to Madison from all 50 states and several countries to receive the gift of life.
“We are developing better ways to preserve and restore organs from deceased donors, and research is helping us expand organ availability every year,” says Dixon Kaufman, medical director at the UW Health Transplant Center and professor of surgery at the School of Medicine and Public Health. “I am hopeful it will not take another five decades to reach the next 20,000 organs transplanted.”
Grosklaus turned 57 in March, surrounded by family and friends.
“I have more zip,” he says, “and I am getting stronger every day.”
Published in the Winter 2024 issue
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