Meet VCA
Watch and read the stories of those who are impacted or involved with Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (VCA).
Joe DiMeo
Face and Double Hand
Transplant Recipient
Joe DiMeo suffered serious burns and injuries after a horrific car accident in 2018. Two years later, he received the world's first face and double hand transplant.
Chelsea Jovanovich
Uterine Transplant Recipient
Chelsea had always been told she wouldn't be able to get pregnant after being born without a fully developed uterus. But after she applied for a uterus transplant from Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, she found a match and has since given birth to two healthy boys.
Dr. Gerald Brandacher
Scientific Director of the Johns Hopkins Reconstructive Transplantation Program
Before joining Johns Hopkins in 2010, Dr. Brandacher was a key member of the hand transplant programs in Innsbruck, Austria, and at the University of Pittsburgh. As scientific director of the program at UPMC, he was instrumental in designing a novel cell-based immunomodulatory treatment protocol for vascularized composite allotransplantation, and was part of the surgical team that performed the first bilateral hand transplant and first forearm transplant in the U.S.
Jennifer Gobrecht
Uterine Transplant Recipient
Jennifer had always been told she wouldn't be able to get pregnant after being born without a fully developed uterus. But after she applied for a uterus transplant from Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, she became the first successful transplant in their program and delivered a healthy baby boy in 2020.
