They chose healthcare, and then they chose transplant.

Seven providers share their reasons choosing careers in transplantation.

Travis Doty, RN, Pre-Transplant Coordinator, UC Health

“A transplant surgeon actually asked me to help manage his hepatobiliary surgery practice so I did that for several years and enjoyed doing it. It was a different aspect of nursing. About five years ago I decided I wanted a change and I talked to some nursing colleagues in the transplant world. It’s really been the best job of my life. I love liver transplant. I love the patient population. I love being a part of a multidisciplinary team.” –Doty

David Feldman, MD, PhD, Clinical Services Director, UC Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute, and Clinical Director of the Institute’s Center for Advanced Myocardial and Circulatory Disorders and Heart Transplantation

“I chose to be an invasive cardiologist because the closest person to me when I was a young child was my grandmother, who subsequently died from a heart attack. My training included going to both medical as well as graduate school and my graduate training was in studying research mechanisms related to how hearts fail and that’s how I wound up being a cardiologist who takes care of end-stage heart disease for a living.” –Feldman

Katy Greathouse, RN, Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit Nurse, UC Health

“The whole thing was magical: you’re taking an organ out of someone else’s body and giving life to somebody who was told, ‘This is it,’” she said. “I’m proud to be part of the rejuvenation of the [heart] transplant program. We need this in the region; people need us.” –Greathouse

Becky Hardy, RN, Sensitized Patient Program Coordinator, UC Health

“In 2001, after a loss of a loved one, I found a love for caring for very sick patients.  This love grew and transitioned into a love for transplantation.” –Hardy

Louis B. Louis IV, MD, Chief of Cardiac Surgery and Associate Professor of Surgery, UC College of Medicine

“I chose a career in cardiac surgery partly because of the elegance of treating the human heart and partly I chose to treat patients with advanced heart failure because of the devastating prognosis that the disease carries.” –Louis

Shimul Shah, MD, Director of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery, UC Healht, Associate Professor of Surgery and Section Chief of Solid Organ Transplantation, UC Department of Surgery

“I do what I do because I think liver transplantation and liver surgery in general is the most challenging surgery that we do, but also the most gratifying. Patients are very sick. They’re on death’s door and we try to provide the best clinical care we can here at UC Health. And we try to deliver the care when it’s most needed, which unfortunately for us is literally at the brink of life or death.” –Shah

Steve Woodle, MD, Director of Solid Organ Transplantation, UC Health, and William A. Altemeier Endowed Chair and Professor or Surgery, UC College of Medicine

“When you get a transplant, your life expectancy goes up substantially. It could add five years, 10 years, 15 years or even 20 years in some patients. And it’s not only that it helps that individual person but it also has a profound effect on their family and their friends.” –Woodle

Now We Join in Celebration

As we celebrate 50 years of providing excellence in transplantation, breakthrough treatments and compassionate coordination of care to the region, we invite you to join us in a 50-day countdown to the anniversary of the first surgery that launched Cincinnati’s most comprehensive transplant program.

Celebrate with us by sharing our stories of transplantation with your social media network using #UCHealthTransplant via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!

For more information about UC Health transplant services, please visit uchealth.com/transplant.