First multi-organ transplant brings next-level care to St. Joseph Hospital Orange

In 2023, Providence St. Joseph Hospital Orange celebrated 1,200 transplants and recognized the 50^th anniversary of our kidney transplant program. In October 2024, the kidney transplant program celebrated another amazing milestone: Our first-ever dual-organ transplant.

Dr. Robert Naraghi, the program’s surgical director, performed a simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplant for a patient who had been diagnosed with Type 1 juvenile diabetes as a teen, developed kidney failure, and had been on a three-times-a-week dialysis schedule for a few years. 

A complete cure

“People diagnosed with Type 1 juvenile diabetes often feel they’ve received a life sentence,” says Dr. Yasir Qazi, St. Joseph’s kidney and pancreas transplant director. “For the rest of their life, they will need insulin to survive.”

Kidney disease is a serious and common complication of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and the only complete cure for patients who have both diabetes and kidney failure is a combined kidney and pancreas transplant. 

Only about 800 of these combined transplants are performed in the U.S. each year.

A new lease on life

The patient who received this double transplant had been waiting for a year for a suitable kidney and pancreas to become available. Finally, in October, the St. Joseph transplant team was notified that a match had been found. 

The surgery is complex; it lasted between five and six hours. But the doctors knew almost immediately afterward that the transplant was successful. Once the patient woke up, his body was making urine – eliminating the need for dialysis – and his blood sugars immediately normalized.

Now, for the first time in nearly 20 years, this patient is diabetes- and dialysis-free. 

“I don’t know any other area of medicine where a patient’s life can change so completely, overnight,” Dr. Qazi says.

Becoming a multi-organ transplant center

As kidney and pancreas transplant director, Dr. Qazi played a large part in getting the dual-organ transplant program up and running and facilitating this first simultaneous organ transplant.  

In this role, he oversees transplant candidates’ applications, selection of organs, concerns related to immunosuppression to avoid organ rejection and other medical details.

This isn’t his first time developing a transplant program. Dr. Qazi completed his fellowship at SUNY School of Medicine in Brooklyn, but only kidney training was available there at the time. So, he traveled back and forth to also train at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center (formerly Saint Barnabas Medical Center), a small New Jersey hospital that was home to one of the country’s leading pancreas transplant centers. 

After completing this training and earning certification in both pancreas and kidney transplant medicine, Dr. Qazi started a kidney-pancreas transplant program at the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, New York. 

“For me, in my own journey, I am thankful that I took time in my fellowship to get certified in pancreas in addition to kidney transplant,” Dr. Qazi says. “I had no idea I would be involved in starting two pancreas transplant programs in my career.” 

 “People waiting for transplants can choose from among many transplant centers and we’re getting calls from people who want to list with us, which is incredibly gratifying and the best honor.”

What’s next

The successful completion of this multi-organ transplant opens the possibility of advancing even further and keeps St. Joseph in the company of other powerhouses in transplant medicine, such as UCLA and Stanford. 

“We’ve grown from 25-30 transplants a year to almost 250 in the two years I’ve been at Providence,” Dr Qazi says. “Dr. Naraghi is recognized as one of the best transplant surgeons in the U.S. Our transplant success and patient survival rates are among the highest in the nation, a true testament to the expertise of our skilled surgeons and staff.”

Dr. Qazi says the medical group and hospital leadership’s tremendous support of the transplant program is essential to its growth and success, and he’s honored to be a part of it. 

“People waiting for transplants can choose from among many transplant centers and we’re getting calls from people who want to list with us, which is incredibly gratifying and the best honor.”

“I’m very excited to see where we go from here.”