January 2013

Dr. Joseph Edward Murray, the first doctor to perform kidney transplant successfully died on 26 November 2012. The 93 year old doctor had received a Nobel Prize for the work. Murray had stroke at the suburban home in Boston on 22 November 2012 and eventually he died at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. After he performed the first kidney transplant on the identical twins, various other transplants on different organs of the body were performed. Murray also shared Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1990 along with Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, who performed various bone marrow transplants. Earlier in 1950s human organ transplants were never successful. But Murray along with the associates in Boston’s Peter Bent Brigham Hospital which is now called Brigham and Women’s Hospital developed the surgical methods by transplanting the kidneys in dogs. First kidney transplant was performed in December 1954 on 23-year old Richard Herrick as well as his identical twin Ronald Herrick. After operation, Richard got the functioning kidney transplantation from Ronald.

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