Wits University’s liver transplant programme has completed its 1,000th transplant, marking a remarkable milestone for South African healthcare and offering hope to thousands of families.
South Africa (04 August 2026) – Last week, the Wits University Liver Transplant Programme celebrated an extraordinary achievement, completing its 1,000th liver transplant and cementing its place as one of Africa’s leading transplant programmes.
The milestone is about far more than a number. It represents 1,000 people who were given another chance to celebrate birthdays, make memories with loved ones and look forward to a future that once seemed uncertain.
A collaboration between Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre and Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, the programme has grown into a national and regional referral centre, caring for patients from across South Africa and beyond.
Since performing its first liver transplant in 2004, the programme has consistently pushed the boundaries of medical innovation. Along the way, it has introduced living donor liver transplantation for adults and children, advanced split liver transplantation, pioneered HIV-positive donor liver transplantation, performed highly specialised monosegment liver transplants and, most recently, introduced liver machine perfusion technology to help maximise the use of precious donor organs.
Of the 1,000 transplants completed, 637 were performed in adults and 363 in children, each representing a family given renewed hope.
Professor Jerome Loveland, Academic Head of Transplantation at Wits, says the achievement belongs to generations of healthcare professionals who have dedicated themselves to building and strengthening the programme.
“People often see the transplant operation as the defining moment. In reality, it is the culmination of years of expertise and systems development across highly specialised teams. The 1 000th transplants reflect the legacy handed to us by those who built the programme, past and present, the extraordinary multidisciplinary expertise that sustains it today and our responsibility to train the people who will carry it forward.”
The programme’s success is also a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when academic medicine, scientific research and public healthcare work together with a shared purpose: improving access to life-saving treatment for South Africans.
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Across South Africa, many patients are still waiting for the life-saving call that a donor organ has become available. Advances in transplantation continue to expand what’s possible, but the need for more registered organ donors remains greater than ever.
Every registered donor has the potential to save multiple lives.
As Wits celebrates 1,000 successful liver transplants, the milestone stands as a testament to South African medical excellence, relentless innovation and the remarkable teams who refuse to give up on hope.
Here’s to the next thousand lives changed.
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