KIDNEY
Meet The Team

The Texas Transplant Institute's multi-disciplinary team approach to patient care includes highly skilled physicians, advanced practice nurses, transplant coordinators, dietitians, social workers, pharmacists, and other caregivers dedicated to the care of transplant candidates, recipients, and donors. The patient and their referring physician is an integral part of the transplant team as well.



Francis H. Wright, Jr., MD
Director, Solid Organ Transplant Program and Director, Transplant Surgery Fellowship Program, Texas Transplant Institute
Dr. Wright received his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. After work at the University of Iowa with Dr. Robb Corry he directed the transplant program at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. He joined Dr. Lynn Banowsky in San Antonio in 1994 and later helped found the Texas Transplant Institute as Director of Organ Transplantation for the Institute. Dr. Wright is certified by the American Board of Surgery, is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and has personally performed over 2000 transplant procedures in his nearly twenty years of transplant surgery experience. He is active with the United Network for Organ Sharing working to develop national transplant policy. Dr. Wright is a member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the International Transplantation Society and other major professional organizations. He has served as president of the Southeastern Organ Procurement Foundation and the American Foundation for Donation and Transplantation. He has research interests in immunosuppression, pancreas transplantation and organ preservation, and has multiple publications regarding organ transplant topics.
Dr. Wright is an independent practitioner with Texas Transplant Physician Group.
Matthias H. Kapturczak, MD, PhD
Transplant Nephrologist
Medical Director, Kidney Transplant Program, Texas Transplant Institute
Dr. Kapturczak is an independent practitioner with the San Antonio Kidney Disease Center Physician Group in San Antonio, and has been a member of the kidney transplant team at Texas Transplant Institute since 2007. Dr. Kapturczak obtained both his medical degree as well as doctorate in biochemistry and physiology at the Free University of Berlin Medical School in Berlin, Germany. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the C.G. Carus Technical University of Dresden in Germany in 1995, and also at the University of Florida Gainesville in 1999.  In 2003, Dr. Kapturczak completed his fellowship in nephrology at the University of Florida in Gainesville.  Prior to relocating to San Antonio in 2007, Dr. Kapturczak served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Surgery and a transplant nephrologist in the Division of Nephrology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  During his academic career, he published multiple manuscripts in the field of immunology of transplant rejection and autoimmunity. Dr. Kapturczak is board certified in Internal Medicine and Nephrology, and is a member of the American Society of Transplantation, the American Society of Nephrology and other major professional organizations.

Steven G. Rosenblatt, MD, FACP, FASN
Kidney Transplant Program, Texas Transplant Institute
Dr. Rosenblatt is an independent practitioner with the San Antonio Kidney Disease Center Physician Group in San Antonio, and has been a member of the kidney transplant team at Texas Transplant Institute since its inception in 1994. Dr. Rosenblatt received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University, and a medical degree from Cornell Medical College. He served his internship and residency at UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles and the Bexar County Hospital District in San Antonio. He then spent two years in the United States Air Force as a Flight Surgeon, and went on to complete a fellowship in nephrology with the Bexar County Hospital District, and is a current Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Rosenblatt is board certified in internal medicine and nephrology, and is a fellow of the American Society of Nephrology and the American College of Physicians.

Juan Palma-Vargas, MD
Abdominal Transplant Surgeon, Liver and Kidney Transplant Programs, Texas Transplant Institute
Dr. Palma-Vargas graduated from the University of Guadalajara, Mexico with a Bachelor of Science in Biology, and obtained his medical degree at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara. Dr. Palma trained in general surgery at the Maine Medical Center, and completed a research fellowship in kidney transplantation at the Michigan Transplant Institute at Michigan State University, and a fellowship in abdominal organ transplantation at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Palma is trained in liver, kidney and pancreas transplantations and performs live donor nephrectomies as well as complex hepatobiliary surgery. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery, is a member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, and the Mexican Society of General Surgery.
Dr. Palma is an independent practitioner with Texas Transplant Physician Group.

Adam W. Bingaman, MD, PhD
Abdominal Transplant Surgeon, Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Programs, Texas Transplant Institute
Dr. Bingaman graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry, received his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine and then went on to complete his general surgery residency training at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. During his residency he earned a Doctorate of Philosophy. in immunology from Emory University Graduate School of Biological Sciences, where his research focused on how the immune system rejects transplanted tissues. He then went on to complete his fellowship training in kidney and pancreas transplantation surgery at the University of Maryland. Prior to joining Texas Transplant Institute, Dr. Bingaman was Assistant Professor of Surgery at Medical College of Georgia, and University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio. He is board certified by the American Board of Surgery, is a member of the American College of Surgeons, and has published extensively in the field of transplantation immunology.
Dr. Bingaman is an independent practitioner with
Texas Transplant Physician Group.



             Kidney Clinic Staff

  Clinical Director
Linda McFarlin, RN, BSN, MAM
Clinic Supervisor
Lisa Presley, RN, BSN
Live Donor Supervisor
Oscar Nava, RN
Outreach Coordinator
Kim Chaffin, RN
 Transplant Coordinators
Amanda Weichold, RN, BSN
Corina Esparza, RN, BSN
Dana Richardson, RN, BSN
Debbie Smith, RN, BSN
Diana DeLua, RN
Diane Tarpey, RN
Juan Martinez, RN
Maura Kapp, RN, BSN
Ruby Benavides, RN
Tina Martenson, RN
Social Workers
Arturo Rodriguez, LMSW
Monica Trevino, LMSW
Vivian Holmes, LCSW