Living Donation Facts

History

The first successful living donor transplant was performed between 23-year-old identical twins in 1954. Doctor Joseph E. Murray and associates at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital) in Boston, Massachusetts, transplanted a healthy kidney from Ronald Herrick into his twin brother, Richard, who had chronic kidney failure.

Richard went on to live an active, normal life, dying eight years later from causes unrelated to the transplant. Still alive over fifty years since the transplant, Ronald is a retired math teacher from Maine.

Reference and Publication Information

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The content on this page was originally created on February 25, 2005 by the United Network for Organ Sharing and last modified on October 24, 2006.

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