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Dr. Alexis Carrel received the
Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1912.
A year later he transplanted a kid–
ney from one cat to another, the
fi rst such scientific endeavor.
Before World War
1,
unsuccess–
ful attempts were made to trans–
plant kidneys from pigs, goats, apes
and monkeys into humans.
Modero heart surgery was born
when surgeons such as Dr. Dwight
E.
Harken of Harvard Medica!
School saved lives during World
War
II
by repairing heart wounds.
Then carne the first "blue baby"
operation in 1945 at Johns Hopkins
University in America,
to aid children boro with defective
heart passageways.
Science moved another step for–
ward in 1961 when Dr. Norman E .
Shumway of the Stanford Universi–
ty Medica! Center became the first
to implant hearts into bodies of
recipient dogs. The transplant
proved successful until the exasper–
ating rejection syndrome arose.
Then a South African surgical
team, headed by Dr. Christiaan
Barnard, showed that the results of
animal investigations could be
applied to man. On December 3,
1967 , the first human had
implanted into his chest the heart
of a 22-year-old auto accident vic–
tim. He survived 18 days before
dying of a lung infection. The his–
torie operation unleashed the ftood–
gates of surgical enterprise.
Head1ines proclaimed: "Kidney
Transplants Finally Come of Age,"
" Miracle Drugs Add to Success of
Organ Transp1ants" and "The Year
They Changed Hearts."
In the present decade alone med–
ica) technology has defied all sup–
posed limits. Last year in the
United States 172 human hearts
were transplanted , compared to
only 36 in 1980. In that same time,
liver grafts jumped from 15 to 145.
Worldwide, about 800 hearts have
been transplanted, according to the
U.S. National Center for Health
Services Research, with the success
rate rising from 65 percent four
years ago to more than 80 percent
in 1984.
Besides transplanting hearts,
livers, kidneys, lungs and bone
marrow and performing dou–
ble-organ transplants, surgeons
have even implanted perma–
ncnt artificial organs made
of synthetic compounds–
albeit with varying de-·
grees of success.
Out of Pandora's box
have sprung serious
ethical and economic
questions that confront
doctors worldwide. As
put by one author:
~
"No victory comes as
g
a free gift. All the
wonders of medica!
J
science exact a
Q
price."
~
What Price
"Progress"?
Look at the toll sucb
~
~
rapid advancements have
§
levied. All along has been
g
the great barrier of organ
~
rejection.
1f
body tissues
o
aren't matched precisely, the
~
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