As Winter Storm Crippled Houston, Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center Performed Double Lung Transplant

As a rare winter storm crippled life in Houston on January 20, 2025, the “rideout” team at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center rose to the challenge, performing a lifesaving double lung transplant for a critically ill patient.

The elderly patient had been on the transplant list for a month and was so sick he had recently been admitted to the hospital for care. A donor lung became available just before the dangerous weather was to arrive and it required the procurement team to take a 5-hour flight to retrieve the organ.

“Oftentimes when waitlisted transplant patients are admitted, it means their window for transplant begins to close and we don't have much time to wait,” said Dr. Ramiro Fernandez II, a thoracic surgeon at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. “It might be days or another month before another organ becomes available.”

The lung procurement team made the trip and returned to Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center at 5:30 p.m., just as a winter storm warning went into effect. The hospital’s rideout team was on site and prepared to weather the storm, care for admitted patients and assist where needed. The team was called in to support the transplant team in the operating room. 

Six hours later, Dr. Fernandez and his team of surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and surgical techs completed the double lung transplant. The rideout team stayed overnight while Dr. Fernandez barely made it home in deteriorating weather conditions.

Early the next morning, the patient was taken back into surgery to address a complication. With Dr. Fernandez snowed in, Dr. Gabriel Loor, Surgical Director of Lung Transplantation at Baylor St. Luke’s and Associate Professor of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, was able to navigate treacherous roads to perform the surgery.

“We have a core lung transplant team that is tremendously dedicated. We are one of the top five lung transplant teams in the country in terms of volume and this group is one of the hardest working teams in the entire hospital,” Dr. Fernandez said.

A lung transplant is a more complicated surgery than a rideout team normally handles but as a tertiary care center, Baylor St. Luke’s is nonetheless prepared. In addition to the transplant, the OR rideout team was also called into an emergent cardiac procedure. 

“It was really a heroic effort for the rideout team to be able to handle the transplant, including the emergent second surgery, plus a separate cardiac emergency,” Dr. Fernandez said. “It shows that the patient comes first, especially when they are very sick and may not get another chance.”

Snowfall totals ranged from 1 to 5.5 inches across the Houston area with dangerous conditions that lasted days.