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DENVER (KDVR) — Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver has reopened its transplant program under the name Centura Transplant, and surgeons performed the first organ transplant right at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.

Their first patient was Dean Murray. The Lakewood man had been on dialysis for 2 1/2 years. A kidney from a deceased donor became available in the middle of March.

“I needed a kidney and wanted a kidney, and was thankful I was getting one,” Murray said. 

“When you have that opportunity, it needs to happen,” said his wife, Pat.

Dean got his transplant on March 15, just as restrictions were starting to roll out, and the surgery was a success.

“He’s doing wonderfully,” said Dr. Tom Collins, the director of the new Centura Transplant program. He and Dr. Giridhar Vedula performed the transplant surgery.

Collins says coronavirus presented some unique challenges.

“The main concern at that time was really isolating him from other potentially positive COVID patients, and keeping staff that were taking care of COVID patients isolated from him as a patient,” Collins said.

Pat saw her husband once before the visitor restrictions began. The couple says everything went well, and they are grateful for the donor and the transplant team.

“It’s beyond a gift. It’s just an amazing thing,” Pat said. 

Dean is now immunosuppressed. So he and Pat are taking great precautions during the pandemic.

The hospital and program are taking great precautions as well. But those protocols are evolving, and doctors hope to serve other patients soon.

During the pandemic, many programs across the country put their living donor transplants on hold. Centura Transplant is now evaluating when to start those again. They do have some patients waiting to be scheduled.

“Our ability to transplant safely has evolved, so now that the COVID crisis seems to have peaked, we are revisiting  how and when we are going to transplant patients,” Collins said.

April is Donate Life Month. It is a good time to register to be a donor at death. You can do that when you get a license or online.