Florida Hospital Receives Lung Transplant Designation

A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Heidelberg Medical School, Dr. Hartmuth Bittner is the founder and president of Gulf Coast Cardiothoracic Surgery Institute in Tampa, Florida. Dr. Hartmuth Bittner recently joined Florida Hospital as a heart and lung transplant surgeon, allowing the hospital to launch its first lung transplant program.

The hospital received program approval from the United Network for Organ Sharing, establishing Florida Hospital as the first medical facility in Central Florida capable of offering lung transplants. With Dr. Bittner functioning as surgical director of heart and lung transplants, Florida Hospital has completed its longstanding mission of becoming a fully functional transplant center. The facility will now be able to serve the more than 1,600 patients on the national lung transplant waiting list. Studies suggest that, prior to the new transplant designation, between 10 and 20 patients left Central Florida each year to receive lung transplant support.

Surgeons at Florida Hospital performed their first organ transplant, a kidney transplant, nearly four decades ago. Since that time, the hospital’s transplant team has successfully completed close to 3,000 organ transplants. Early in 2020, the transplant team expanded operations by performing its first heart transplant.