MADISON, Wis. — This April, which marks Donate Life Month, the UW Health Transplant Center is reflecting on a major milestone.

In Feb. 2024, surgeons completed the 20,000th organ transplant in the program’s history.

“Kind of top of mind is the fact that, how many people have helped that many people receive the gift of life,” Dr. Dixon Kaufman, UW Health Transplant Center’s medical director, said. “At the top of that list are all the organ donors [and] their families — the vast majority from our community and the state of Wisconsin. That … allows us to give the gift of life to so many people.”

UW Health Transplant Center is the fourth program in the U.S. to surpass 20,000 organ transplants, and the only one in the Midwest. Kaufman said while most recipients hail from Wisconsin, patients have come to the center from every state in the country and even abroad.

Gary Grosklaus, who lives in Wisconsin Rapids, was the recipient of the history-making transplant. Grosklaus, who has lived with type 2 diabetes for more than 15 years, received a simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant. The transplant was done to not only cure his diabetes but also to get him off dialysis.

“Many people may be unaware that the University of Wisconsin-Madison transplant program at UW Health is the nation’s leader in simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplants for these patients with diabetes that are uremic on dialysis. So for number 20,000 to be what we call an SPK transplant — simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant — makes perfect sense,” Kaufman said.

UW Health said Grosklaus, 57, is currently recovering at home with the support of his family, but reported he is already feeling great and has more “zip.”

Learn more about becoming an organ donor, here.