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As part of BWH’s BluePrint celebration, BWH Bulletin will feature this special section to explore the past, present and future of the institution. Throughout 2013, you’ll find a new fun fact, story, photo or tradition in each issue of Bulletin.
On Dec. 23, 1954, Joseph Murray, MD, and his team completed the first-ever human organ transplant (see photo at right), helping to forge the path for a new field in medicine that has since saved countless lives. Murray successfully transplanted the healthy donated kidney of Ronald Herrick into his identical twin brother, Richard Herrick, at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (a predecessor hospital of BWH).
With his team's breakthroughs in organ transplantation, Murray, who passed away in November, opened the doors for hundreds of thousands of people to receive life-saving transplants. In fact, the City of Boston has proclaimed Jan. 10, 2013 "Dr. Joseph E. Murray Day" to coincide with BWH's celebration of his life.
Since Murray's pioneering surgery, more than 2,500 kidney transplants have been performed at BWH. Transplant surgery at BWH has expanded to include heart, hand, face, pancreatic transplants and more.
Additionally, researchers at BWH are conducting cutting-edge research in regenerative therapeutics that may one day change the landscape of organ transplantation. For example, in an effort to address the lack of available transplantable organs, Ali Khademhosseini, PhD, MASc, of the Division of Biomedical Engineering, is working to make artificial tissues outside of the body that can be transplanted. This is just one of many ways BWHers are transforming the future of research and patient care.
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