When I began my career as a surgeon, I was the beneficiary of a professorship that got me started in the field of cardiopulmonary transplantation. It was 1993, at a hospital in the middle of a neighborhood very similar to the one here in Baltimore. Many good people had trouble accessing quality care in a community of mostly underrepresented minorities. 

In partnership with a distinguished liver transplant surgeon, I was charged with getting an organ transplant program up and running. The photos of our first transplant patients at that hospital are still on the walls of my office today. Those patients were members of the local community, and institutional commitment and philanthropy made it possible for them to have access to such sophisticated medical care. 

Philanthropy supported my first surgical position, and it gave people access to the lifesaving transplants that they needed. Today, that transplant program continues to thrive and makes a huge impact in the local community, as well as regionally and nationally.

Here at Johns Hopkins, I see the same thing happening. Philanthropy supports and enhances the work that surgeons can accomplish, which changes the lives of the people in our community. 

Last year, the Department of Surgery was fortunate to receive extraordinary gifts. If you want to help us sustain the existing programs and create new opportunities, I hope you will consider making a donation to a particular research program, clinical area or professorship. From everyone in the Department of Surgery, I want to extend our heartfelt thanks — your efforts may help us save a life!