Florida Hospital Orlando (see more articles like this)

Patients in need of lifesaving liver transplants may soon find themselves in the caring hands of health care professionals at Florida Hospital Orlando.  The Agency of Health Care Administration (AHCA) recently approved the hospital’s application for a liver transplant program, the first one in Central Florida.

“We are very pleased that AHCA is in agreement about the need for such a service,” said Tim Jankiewicz, executive director of Florida Hospital’s organ recovery program, TransLife. “At Florida Hospital, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities in which we work.  By establishing this liver transplant program, we are bringing a much-needed service to the Orlando area so our patients can receive treatment here instead of having to leave the community. Without a liver transplant program at Florida Hospital, an estimated 100 patients would have to leave Central Florida to have a liver transplant in 2007.”

Currently, Orlando is one of only two metro areas in the United States with populations of more than 1.5 million without a liver transplant program.  Today, more than 90,000 children and adults await lifesaving organ transplants in the United States.  Of those, 17,000 are in need of liver transplantation.

Florida Hospital will have the liver transplant program in place by the end of September and plans to perform its first liver transplant by the end of 2006.

“The liver transplant program at Florida Hospital is another milestone in our mission to extend the healing ministry of Christ,” Jankiewicz said.