Ronald and Richard Herrick
Ronald Lee Herrick (15 June 1931 - 29 December 2010) was the world's first organ donor. On December 23, 1954, Herrick had one of his kidneys removed and transplanted into his identical twin brother, Richard J. Herrick (15 June 1931 - 14 March 1963).[1] Richard was dying from chronic nephritis, a kidney disease.[2] This made Richard the first successful recipient of a human organ transplant. The operation was performed by Dr. Joseph Murray at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. Murray later won the 1990 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his transplant work.[3]
Ronald and Richard Herrick | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ronald Lee Herrick Richard J. Herrick June 15, 1931 Sherman Oaks, California, U.S. |
| Died | Richard: March 14, 1963 (aged 31) Ronald: December 29, 2010 (aged 79) |
Richard lived for a further eight years, while Ronald worked as a teacher and farmer. Ronald died in 2010 after complications from heart surgery. Since the 1954 operation more than 450,000 kidney transplants have been done in the US.[2]
References
- ↑ "World's first organ donor dies at 79". boston.com. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Pioneer kidney donor dies at 79". newsworks.org. Archived from the original on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
- ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1990". nobelprize.org. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
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