Senator Bill Frist, MD, Opens Door to Tennessee
It was in the medical school in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine that Rostyslav learned from St. Louis friends about Dr. Bill Frist, Tennessee cardio-thoracic surgeon who founded Vanderbilt Transplant Center (now has largest heart transplant program in the world), became a U.S. Senator, raised to a Senate Majority Leader and played instrumental role in helping President George W. Bush to pass PEPFAR HIV/AIDS program in the Congress.
Hearing that Sen. Frist was speaking at the National Healthcare CXO Summit in October 2022, Rostyslav purchased a ticket to the event. Dr. Vasyl Strilka from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine offered to the Minister a letter for the Senator to support Ukraine’s transplant program reform.
Dr. Frist generously responded to the invitation and in December 2022 eight Ukrainian doctors came to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN, to observe heart and lung transplant operations. They learned transplant protocols, multidisciplinary team work, and established relations with local colleagues.
Read Operating in darkness: Part 1 The doctors' long road from Ukraine to Nashville and Operating in darkness: Part 2 Ukrainian doctors learn tricks of the trade at Vanderbilt by Nashville Business Journal and Ukrainian surgeons visit VUMC to observe transplant protocols by VUMC Reporter.
