VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center celebrates its first successful lung transplant of its new lung transplantation program
Williamsburg man celebrates his 43rd birthday at home one month after surgery.
June 06, 2025
From left to right, back row: Z.A. Hashmi, M.D., Marlon Levy, M.D., MBA, Vipul Patel, M.D. and Nirvik Pal, M.D., with VCU Health patient, Ty McLain and his wife, Tami McLain. (Caroline Ward, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)
By Leigh Farmer
“Last year, I couldn’t blow my birthday candles out. This year I can,” said Ty McLain, the inaugural patient of VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center’s new lung transplant program.
This comes on the heels of the late 2024 announcement of the start of the lung transplant program under the leadership of medical director Vipul Patel, M.D., and surgical director Z.A. Hashmi, M.D. The surgery, which took place on Sunday, May 11, was celebrated as a pivotal advancement for the commonwealth. Hume-Lee is only the third center in Virginia to offer lung transplantation.
“VCU Health is answering the call to help our neighbors,” said Marlon Levy, M.D., MBA, senior vice president for VCU Health Sciences and chief executive officer of VCU Health System. “The need for lung transplantation is high in Virginia and in the region. This program will provide patients with an option close to home.”
Once an organ is available for transplantation, patients may need to quickly travel far distances and stay away from home for an extended period of time. Having a center close to home reduces the burden for both patients and their caretakers.
“Adding lung transplantation to our program means that patients don’t have to wait as long or travel as far,” said David Bruno, M.D., director of Hume-Lee Transplant Center. “Our goal is to provide compassionate, premier lung transplant care and to handle the most complex cases when necessary.”
"The frightening feeling of gasping for air is something most of us will never experience, but our lung failure patients endure that every day. A lung transplant relieves them of that fear,” Hashmi said. “Our team brings surgical excellence to each case by tailoring our approach to the patient’s unique anatomy and disease process, and choosing the surgical path that’s best for the individual. This is the future of lung transplant — and we’re just getting started.”
McLain was born prematurely and his lungs never fully developed. What he thought was asthma most of his life turned out to be bronchial pulmonary dysplasia. This lung transplant has allowed him to not only breathe normally, but it’s given him the potential to live with renewed freedom.
“I was determined to do this because the life I had before wasn’t a life. I didn’t have a life,” McLain said.
Hume-Lee Transplant Center is one of the longest-operating and busiest transplant centers in the nation, performing 40% of all transplants in Virginia, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN). VCU Health is proud to be a comprehensive transplant center offering all solid organ transplants, leading the way in quality, innovation, patient care and family support while serving as a premier destination for the full spectrum of pulmonary disease critical care.
“Bringing lung transplantation to VCU Health isn't just about adding a new procedure — it's about rewriting what's possible for our patients,” Patel said. “This first transplantation marks the beginning of a new chapter; one built on decades of expertise and a relentless drive to provide patients with the care they need most.”
Nationally, there are more than 950 people waiting for a lung transplant. While the number can change daily, roughly 30 Virginians are waiting for a lung or a dual lung and heart transplant.
