(NYT) – A New York transplant surgeon’s experience waiting for a heart transplant laid bare the challenges of a system he had spent decades trying to fix.

At the time of his Argentina trip, Montgomery was leading one of the nation’s premier organ transplant centers, at Johns Hopkins Medicine. He had developed innovative approaches to transplanting kidneys that had been adopted worldwide, and he would go on to play a leading role in the use of organs from genetically modified pigs.

To him, organ transplants were one of the most effective medical treatments ever invented, their power to transform lives thwarted only by the shortage of organs available.

But it looked increasingly likely that he might die before he could get a heart himself. Despite his brush with death on the mountain, he was nowhere near sick enough yet to make it onto the list. (Read More)