Dr. Robert Montgomery, a transplant surgeon at NYU Langone Health, experienced cardiac arrest while hiking in Patagonia in 2010, saved by an implanted device. Despite his pioneering work in organ transplantation—including innovations in kidney transplants and advocacy for genetically modified pig organs—he faced grim odds of receiving a heart transplant himself. Only a few thousand heart transplants occur yearly in the U.S., far below the 50,000 total organs transplanted annually.

Patients often cannot join the waiting list until near death, a cruel irony for Montgomery, who knew the system’s flaws from decades of fixing it. He reflected on his father’s death from dilated cardiomyopathy in 1976, which inspired his medical career after a cardiologist dismissed transplants as ineffective. Montgomery’s journey—from aspiring veterinarian to transplant leader—highlights the tension between medical progress and systemic scarcity.

His personal struggle underscores a broader crisis: even experts are vulnerable to the very shortages they strive to overcome.