Z. A. Hashmi, M.D., is a cardiothoracic surgeon in Charleston, SC whose clinical focus is heart and lung transplantation, and adult cardiac surgery. An expert in transplantation and organ procurement, Dr. Hashmi has presented at several national and international conferences and meetings. Dr. Hashmi graduated from Ross University School of Medicine and completed his General Surgery Residency at Western Reserve Care System. He then went on to complete a residency in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Allegheny General Hospital and a Thoracic Transplant Surgery Fellowship at Duke University, where he received advanced training in heart and lung transplantation and mechanical circulatory support.
He joined MUSC from Baylor University Medical Center, where he focused on the preservation of hearts and lungs for transplantation. During his tenure at Baylor, Dr. Hashmi was the lead surgeon in Texas when the Dallas-based Organ Procurement Organization established a lung recovery program for marginal donor lungs. The program is for the assessment and improvement of lung function prior to transplantation using normo-thermic preservation. Dr. Hashmi was also the first in Texas to preserve donor hearts in a cold fluid suspension device to provide physical and thermal protection in preparation for transplantation.
Prior to Baylor, Dr. Hashmi was a faculty member at Indiana University School of Medicine, where he helped build and grow their transplant program. He was the first surgeon in the state of Indiana to perform minimally invasive left ventricular assist device surgery without the use of a cardiopulmonary bypass machine for patients with end-stage heart failure. Other milestones for the program during his tenure included improved volume and outcomes of lung transplantation using the ex-vivo lung perfusion machine, patients ambulating on ECMO support, and the use of normo-thermic preservation for donor heart and lung organs for transplantation. He also served as the Director of the Thoracic Transplantation Fellowship Program.
Dr. Hashmi is working towards establishing a DCD lung transplant and DCD heart transplant program at MUSC. Both programs would be a first in the state of South Carolina.
