IU Health Transplant

10/30/2025

10/22/2025

Grand Canyon hikers promote organ donation

An IU Health nurse and a business process engineer recently joined 13 other hikers in the “Rim to Rim Challenge.” What these two Indiana hikers had in common is this: They both are living kidney donors. They both want to bring awareness to the need for organ donation.

Cristina Fontana, an oncology nurse navigator at Joe and Shelly Schwarz Cancer Center donated her kidney at IU Health in 2018 to a stranger. Ben Smith donated his kidney for a friend, through the National Kidney Registry voucher program. His donation occurred at IU Health on Dec. 7, 2021.

In a single day, participants hiked from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, to the river and back up the South Rim.

“It was an incredible experience. Ben thought it would be harder than it was, and I thought it would be easier,” said Fontana, who is a former clinical transplant coordinator at IU Health, and worked in ICU at Riley Hospital. “Some completed the trek in 13 hours; others in 14,” she said. Fontana has also completed hikes to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and Everest Base Camp raising awareness for kidney donation.

“The day before the hike, a stranger offered to take a group photo,” said Fontana. “Only later did we learn she was a kidney recipient, three months post-transplant. Coincidence? I like to think it was serendipity, a reminder of why we do what we do.”

According to Organdonor.gov, there are 103,223 people on the national transplant waiting list. Of those, 89,792 are awaiting a kidney transplant. In 2024, there were more than 48,000 transplants in the United States. As of September, IU Health has performed 166 adult and pediatric kidney transplants.

Fontana was inspired to become a living donor at a young age, having lost her father to renal cell carcinoma, a form of kidney cancer.

Smith, a hot air balloon enthusiast learned the son of a local pilot needed a kidney transplant. Through the voucher program, his kidney went to another person in need, and his friend’s son received a match from another donor.

He said he participated in the Rim to Rim Challenge because he doesn’t believe kidney donation ends with surgery. “It’s the beginning of lifelong advocacy,” he said. He hopes to show that kidney donors are not limited by their gift but instead energized by it. Through the Kidney Donor Athletes community, he is proud to inspire others to consider donation and embrace life fully afterward.

-By TJ Banes, IU Health Senior Journalist, tfender1@iuhealth.org

10/16/2025

Donor families and organ recipients joined to celebrate loved ones.

10/13/2025

Zelle Crawford is a physical therapy assistant who doesn't shy away from challenging patients to change their lives.

10/11/2025

Another beautiful day for the Indiana Donor Network Walk to Save Lives! Transplant Psychologist Rachel Holmes, PhD, is joined with members of the IU Health Transplant Support Group.

10/07/2025

This Saturday is Indiana Donor Network's Walk to Save Lives. Stop by the IU Health Transplant table in the lobby of IU Health Fairbanks Hall before the walk begins. We'd love to see you. All are welcome to join the "IU Health Transplant Support Groups" team.

The Walk to Save Lives is this weekend, Oct. 11, in downtown Indianapolis! It's not too late to join us as we celebrate life, honor organ and tissue donors and support those waiting for a lifesaving transplant. ❤️

Learn more and register at www.classy.org/event/2025-walk-to-save-lives/e701065.

10/05/2025

Congratulations to Smyrna Rivera, nurse practitioner with the abdominal organ transplant team at IU Health University Hospital, on this well-deserved recognition.

09/27/2025

09/26/2025

Grandmother’s message supporting kidney disease awareness: ‘You gotta be ‘kidney’ me.’
It was 11 years ago with Larissa Eickleberry was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. The result was kidney failure. She spent the last 11 years on dialysis and recently received a kidney transplant at IU Health University Hospital.
According to Donate Life Indiana, more than 100,000 men, women and children nationally are waiting at any given moment for a lifesaving organ transplant. More than 89,000 are awaiting a new kidney.
Eickleberry said she was listed for about four weeks when she got the call and came in for a transplant on July 13. She was in the care of Dr. William Goggins.
“My worst days were when I was in an out of the hospital with issues of dialysis. I was doing hemodialysis four hours, three days a week. I was missing out on a lot,” said Eickleberry, of Dyer, Ind.
Eickleberry grew up Griffith, Ind. and was active in various sports in high school. She had been healthy most of her life and spent most of her career working as an activity aid in a nursing home.
“I just want to tell my donor how thankful I am,” said Eickleberry. At a recent clinic visit she wore a t-shirt with the message: “You gotta be ‘kidney’ me” to create awareness about kidney disease.
Now with renewed health Eickleberry looks forward to spending more time with her three adult children and two grandchildren. She’s turning 50 in November and said there’s another grandbaby expected around the time of her birthday.
“I’m just happy I get to be here and enjoy them.”
-By TJ Banes, IU Health Senior Journalist, tfender1@iuhealth.org

09/18/2025

Before she was a nurse, Elizabeth “Beth” Wallace was a corrections officer. When a relative underwent a transplant, she was inspired to go into the medical prof

09/10/2025

Congratulations to Dr. Chandrashekhar Kubal, associate chief of abdominal transplant surgery and surgical director of the adult liver transplant program, on being selected as a 2025 IU Health Values Leadership Award winner in the Physician Category. Dr. Kubal (center) is pictured with Dr. Kevin Gebke and Dr. Jonathan Fridell (right).

The IU Health Values Leadership Awards are presented annually to recognize team members who demonstrate extraordinary dedication to the IU Health vision, values and promise, both at work and in their community.