SAN ANTONIO – University Health Transplant Center is celebrating a remarkable milestone in its 50-year history with its first all-female transplant team. “It’s a great celebration of our accomplishments,” said Dr. Elizabeth Thomas, one of the surgeons who led the all-women team. All-female transplant team at University Health (University Health)Hayes Atkins, a 14-year-old from Austin, was the 5000th patient to receive a life-saving organ transplant at the University Health Transplant Center. The teen received a kidney from his mother, Sara Atkins, who says she did what any mother would do for the sake of her son’s health. She said she was comforted knowing her son was in good hands during his surgery with an all-female transplant team.

SAN ANTONIO – Jose Sosa, 39, is the first person in South Texas to receive a double-lung transplant after complications caused by COVID-19. Sosa had trouble breathing and checked into a hospital on July 4 in Corpus Christi after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Sosa was transferred to a hospital in San Antonio as his condition worsened. A team at the University Health Transplant Center located at University Hospital evaluated him for a lung transplant. “Quit pretending that it’s fake,” Sosa said during a virtual press conference at University Hospital.