First Mention: Kidney Transplant

[okarol]

July 28, 2009
First Mention
Kidney Transplant
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Surgeons tried at least nine times to transplant a human kidney before succeeding. An article written in the spring of 1954 and published in the February 1955 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation reported that five of the operations failed immediately, and the rest within 180 days.

Even in animals, the report said, organ transplants had never been successful.

The New York Times mentioned one of these nine operations in an Associated Press report on June 20, 1950. “Kidney Transplant Reported a Success” the headline said, but the report, published three days after the operation, was wrong.

The kidney never produced urine effectively and had to be removed nine months later.

The patient, Ruth Tucker, a 49-year-old woman with a genetic illness called polycystic kidney disease, survived with her remaining kidney for another five years.

But then, success.

On Dec. 23, 1954, a team led by Dr. Joseph E. Murray at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston transplanted a kidney from a 23-year-old man named Ronald Herrick to his identical twin, Richard, whose kidneys were failing.

This time there were no premature reports. It was not until Nov. 3, 1955, that The Times first mentioned it in an article on Page 33.

“Never before has such a feat of organ transplanting in man been accomplished,” Robert K. Plumb wrote. “In no other case in the history of medicine has a human kidney transplant ‘taken’ and lasted so long. Attempts at transplanting other organs have not succeeded either.”

Richard Herrick died in March 1963 after a recurrence of the original kidney disease in his transplanted kidney.

On Oct. 9, 1990, Gina Kolata reported on Page C3 that Dr. Murray had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. NICHOLAS BAKALAR

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/health/28first.html