IU Health Transplant

12/24/2025

12/23/2025

Transplant nurse retires after three decades of service

Friends and collogues recently gathered to wish long-time nurse Kristy Williams the best on her retirement.

“I will miss my co-workers the most. I have a fantastic group of nurses, administration staff and medical assistants that I have worked with throughout my entire career,” said Williams. “I will also miss working with my dedicated transplant doctors and surgeons.”

Some of those doctors and surgeons posed with Williams for a photo. Those include Dr. Andy Lutz, Kidney Transplant Surgeon, Dr. Muhammad Yaqub, transplant nephrologist; Dr. William Goggins, kidney transplant surgeon and IU Health Kidney Transplant Surgical Director; Dr. Muhammad Jan, kidney transplant nephrologist, Dr. Asif Sharfuddin, kidney transplant nephrologist and IU Health Kidney Transplant Medical Director.

Williams, started with IU Health in October 1996 and worked as a nurse in medical surgery for 11 years, in liver transplant for five years and as a kidney transplant coordinator for the past 14 years.

She said she pursued a career in nursing because she has a passion for helping others.

In retirement she plans to travel and golf. She enjoys physical activities such as walking and biking.

-By TJ Banes, IU Health Senior Journalist, tfender1@iuhealth.or go

12/19/2025

As two men recover from lung transplants, their hearts are filled with gratitude.

12/10/2025

There are many things that connect these two sisters. Now, they’re connected by the gift of life.

12/09/2025

12/05/2025

On Sept. 6th Melanie Turner received her greatest birthday present – a multi-visceral transplant. Turner had waited three years to receive a small intestine and a pancreas. She received them during an 11-hour transplant surgery on her birthday. Turner had to wait for so long because her blood type is AB+, which is only present in about four percent of the population. This meant that her donor’s blood type must also be AB+. Turner was an inpatient for a month following her surgery. She returned to University Hospital Tuesday and was able to go home today. She has many interests including playing the guitar, singing, being a songwriter and creating pots in her pottery studio. But she looks most forward to being able to stay active while performing water aerobics again.

11/25/2025

They were both teachers; they are both devoted to their families; but otherwise, these two women were strangers until they connected through a single kidney.

11/20/2025

Last week, we had the honor of celebrating three leaders from our IU Health transplant program. Drs. Marco Lacerda, Jonathan Fridell and Chandrashekhar Kubal (left to right) were recognized for outstanding accomplishments and distinguished service to the State of Indiana and beyond. Dr. Kubal, surgical director of our liver transplant program, received the prestigious Sagamore of the Wabash Award, one of Indiana’s highest honors, recognizing his exceptional contributions. Dr. Fridell, chief of abdominal transplant surgery, and Dr. Lacerda, medical director of the liver transplant program, were named Distinguished Hoosiers, another major recognition awarded by the Governor for excellence. These honors reflect their dedication, leadership and impact in advancing transplant care to save lives. Congratulations to all three for this well-deserved recognition!

iuhealth.org/transplant

11/14/2025

A transplant gives Breyman Browning the chance to go to school, make friends and be a big brother.

10/30/2025

10/22/2025

Grand Canyon hikers promote organ donation

An IU Health nurse and a business process engineer recently joined 13 other hikers in the “Rim to Rim Challenge.” What these two Indiana hikers had in common is this: They both are living kidney donors. They both want to bring awareness to the need for organ donation.

Cristina Fontana, an oncology nurse navigator at Joe and Shelly Schwarz Cancer Center donated her kidney at IU Health in 2018 to a stranger. Ben Smith donated his kidney for a friend, through the National Kidney Registry voucher program. His donation occurred at IU Health on Dec. 7, 2021.

In a single day, participants hiked from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, to the river and back up the South Rim.

“It was an incredible experience. Ben thought it would be harder than it was, and I thought it would be easier,” said Fontana, who is a former clinical transplant coordinator at IU Health, and worked in ICU at Riley Hospital. “Some completed the trek in 13 hours; others in 14,” she said. Fontana has also completed hikes to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and Everest Base Camp raising awareness for kidney donation.

“The day before the hike, a stranger offered to take a group photo,” said Fontana. “Only later did we learn she was a kidney recipient, three months post-transplant. Coincidence? I like to think it was serendipity, a reminder of why we do what we do.”

According to Organdonor.gov, there are 103,223 people on the national transplant waiting list. Of those, 89,792 are awaiting a kidney transplant. In 2024, there were more than 48,000 transplants in the United States. As of September, IU Health has performed 166 adult and pediatric kidney transplants.

Fontana was inspired to become a living donor at a young age, having lost her father to renal cell carcinoma, a form of kidney cancer.

Smith, a hot air balloon enthusiast learned the son of a local pilot needed a kidney transplant. Through the voucher program, his kidney went to another person in need, and his friend’s son received a match from another donor.

He said he participated in the Rim to Rim Challenge because he doesn’t believe kidney donation ends with surgery. “It’s the beginning of lifelong advocacy,” he said. He hopes to show that kidney donors are not limited by their gift but instead energized by it. Through the Kidney Donor Athletes community, he is proud to inspire others to consider donation and embrace life fully afterward.

-By TJ Banes, IU Health Senior Journalist, tfender1@iuhealth.org