PATIENTS

the year of their transplants and joyously reunited with doctors and nurses who had cared for them.

Winship’s Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant Center was one of the first of its kind in the country when it started transplanting patients with blood cancers and blood disorders in 1979. It started with two hematologists who saw the potential of this new treatment: Elliott Winton, still a practicing physician and researcher with the Winship hematology team, and retired hematologist Ralph Vogler.

“This is death-defying treatment. If we can cure somebody, particularly somebody with many years left of good quality of life, that’s one of the biggest thrills of my career,” says Winton.

Visionary leaders, researchers, and nurses grew the program over its 37-year history into a center that now performs this life-saving procedure for over 430 patients a year.

By Catherine Williams