WOMAN GIVEN NEW KIDNEY BY ‘TRANSPLANTING’

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 June 1950, Page 5

WOMAN GIVEN NEW KIDNEY BY ‘TRANSPLANTING’

NEW YORK, June 21 (Rec. 9 a.m.). —A kidney from a dead woman has been 'transplanted in another woman in an. operation which, the doctors saw is the first of its kind ever performed. Dr Pilchard Lawler said the operation was undertaken last Saturday and that the patient was in a good condition three days later.

The operation was begun 10 minutes after the donor of the healthy kidney had died. It required 90 minutes’ working. Simultaneously, one team of' surgeons removed the diseased kidney while another team removed the kidney from the dead woman. Transplantation of _ the healthy kidney was completed in 45 minutes, and the blood started flowing through it. As • soon as the clamps were removed from the blood vessels the organ changed to a healthy pink. The woman who consented to give the kidney after death was 49 years of age and of the same physical size and same blood type as the other woman.

The operation was photographed and was witnessed by some 35 doctors. After the kidney was removed from the dead woman it was placed in a physiological saline solution with heparin. Heparin was also injected into the kidney to prevent clotting of blood in the organ. The artery, vein, and ureter were connected to the corresponding vessels in the woman’s body with black silk thread.