THROWBACKTHISDAY, DEC 23; First successful kidney transplant is performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray.

                             

Dr. Harrison, Joseph E. Murray, Jozhn P. Merrill and others achieved the first successful kidney transplant, between identical twins Ronald and Richard Herrick, in December 23 in 1954 at the Brigham Hospital. Dr. Harrison's primary role was to remove the kidney of the donor (Ronald) in this premier transplant collaboration. Dr. Murray received the 1990 Nobel Prize in Medicine for this and later work.

According to Murray's Nobel Lecture, the surgery which Dr. Harrison performed on the donor was itself distinctly historic in that it was the first time a patient was subjected to an operation which was not for his own benefit. The decision to proceed was made after consultation with clergy and others who carefully scrutinized the ethical aspects.^[4] An extraordinary burden was inherently imposed upon Dr. Harrison in the care of his healthy patient, whereas the surgeon for the transplant recipient was operating on a patient otherwise doomed to die, and the nephrologist had no ability to cure this terminally ill patient.

Dr. Murray in his lecture also related the following exchange between Dr. Harrison and his patient: "At the conclusion of our last pre-operative discussion, the donor asked whether the hospital would be responsible for his health care for the rest of his life if he decided to donate his kidney. Dr. Harrison said, 'Of course not.' But he immediately, and sympathetically, followed with the question, 'Ronald, do you think anyone in this room would ever refuse to take care of you if you needed any medical help?' Ronald paused, and then understood that his future depended upon our sense of professional responsibility rather than on legal assurances." Ronald consented on this basis and the transplant proceeded.^[4]

Upon completion of the surgical procedures, the transplanted kidney immediately assumed normal function in the recipient; the transplant recipient survived for eight years and died in 1962 of complications from his original chronic nephritis. The donor died in December 2010 of unrelated causes.

 

THROWBACKTHISDAY; makes it 61 years and TBT Blog remembers.