VCU Health Performs Nation’s First Fully Robotic Living-Donor Liver Transplant

Innovation meets rising need as liver disease rates climb nationwide

RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — A Roanoke woman and a Colonial Heights teacher made U.S. transplant history this spring — and their story is shining a light on rising liver disease rates during October Liver Awareness Month.

Earlier this year, surgeons at VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center performed the nation’s first fully robotic living-donor liver transplant, giving Quanda Jordan a second chance at life through a donation from Rick Ridpath, a stranger who had already donated a kidney years before.

“This is a game-changer,” said Seung Duk Lee, M.D., Ph.D., Hume-Lee Transplant Center’s liver transplant surgical director and Quanda’s surgeon. “Robotic technology makes complex liver transplants less invasive and safer — and it has the potential to expand access for the growing number of patients who can’t afford to wait.”

Jordan’s rare autoimmune liver disease progressed rapidly. But within 24 hours of arriving at VCU Health, she had a diagnosis and, soon after, a donor. Her March 2025 surgery was performed using the da Vinci 5 robotic system, allowing surgeons to operate with exceptional precision through tiny incisions. Jordan was up and walking just one day after surgery and went home in record time.

“This is my dream surgery,” Lee said. “We’ve been building to this for years. It took the skill of an entire team and the generosity of one remarkable donor to make it happen.”

Why this matters now

• The need for liver transplants continues to grow as advanced liver disease rises across the U.S., with an estimated 4.5 million adults affected.
• More than 9,000 people are on the liver transplant waiting list, but demand continues to outpace organ supply in the U.S.
• 
  Living donation
  is one of the best ways to close that gap, yet very few centers are equipped to perform these highly complex operations robotically.

Hume-Lee is changing that. The center, home to one of the nation’s top ten liver transplant programs based on volume, has been a leader in robotic innovation for nearly a decade. It performed Virginia’s first robotic kidney transplant, and now, with the nation’s first fully robotic living-donor liver transplant, is setting a new benchmark for what’s possible.

“This milestone isn’t just about one patient,” Lee said. “It’s about opening doors for many more — faster recovery, less pain, and ultimately, more lives saved.”

For more information about VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center, visit: vcuhealth.org/transplant.

SOURCE for transplant volume data: Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network (OPTN) National data – OPTN. 

About VCU and VCU Health

Virginia Commonwealth University is a major, urban public research university with national and international rankings in sponsored research. Located in downtown Richmond, VCU enrolls more than 28,000 students in more than 200 degree and certificate programs in the arts, sciences and humanities across VCU’s 12 schools and three colleges. The VCU Health brand represents the VCU health sciences academic programs, the VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center and the VCU Health System, which comprises VCU Medical Center (the only academic medical center in the region), Community Memorial Hospital, Tappahannock Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, and MCV Physicians. The clinical enterprise includes a collaboration with Sheltering Arms Institute for physical rehabilitation services. For more, please visit vcu.edu and vcuhealth.org.

CONTACT: Caroline Ward 
VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center Public Relations 
Phone: 804-628-8578
Email: caroline.ward@vcuhealth.org

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