The mysterious disappearance of Dr. William Coltharp, last seen kayaking on Center Hill Lake, was cited as a factor last week in St. Thomas Hospital’s decision to halt its heart transplant program as of Jan. 14.
A leading cardiologist at St. Thomas, 55-year-old Coltharp’s overturned kayak was found floating on the lake in the main river channel near the Hurricane Recreation Area, where the water reaches depths of some 140 feet.
The recovered kayak contained a life jacket and, in its storage area, an Apple MacBook laptop
The waterlogged laptop has reportedly been sent to the TBI’s forensics unit for analysis, according to law enforcement officials.
While the doctor’s body has still not been found, eyewitness reports, along with an empty gun case belonging to Coltharp, only deepened the puzzling disappearance.
One eyewitness allegedly reported seeing a man loading a cylindrical concrete block onto a kayak at approximately the same time the Nashville doctor would have arrived at the lake.
Additionally, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employee, changing out garbage bags in the area, found an empty gun case near the boat ramp.
The serial number on the gun case matched that of a missing pistol belonging to the doctor.
Despite intensive search and recovery efforts, no trace of the doctor’s body has been found.
The halt of St. Thomas’s heart transplant program leaves only two Tennessee hospitals performing the procedure: Vanderbilt in Nashville and Baptist Memorial in Memphis.
Dr. Mark Aaron, medical director of the St. Thomas Heart Ventricular Assist Device Center, noted competition from Vanderbilt as well the Coltharp’s disappearance as factors in the decision to halt transplants.
“The program was already under evaluation, but yes, the unexpected loss of a cardiac surgeon was a catalyzing event in our discernment process,” Aaron stated.
St. Thomas became the first Tennessee hospital to perform the  then-pioneering effort in March 1985 with Vanderbilt doing a transplant the next month.
Since 1985, St. Thomas has performed more than 350 heart transplants, although the number of procedures had been declining in recent years.
St. Thomas performed 15 heart transplants in 2009, dropping to just eight in 2010 while Vanderbilt was the site of 25 such procedures.
Additionally, Vanderbilt was having greater success with outcomes, hitting a 100 percent adult survival rate after transplantation, compared with 81 percent for St. Thomas.
The Nashville-based hospital will now place its emphasis on ventricular assist device (VAD) therapy.
Originally intended as a bridge used until heart transplant, the devices, which help the heart pump with battery power, are now approved for permanent use.