Taner B, Méndez-Sánchez N

Language: English
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It is with sadness that we learned passing of Dr. Thomas Starzl. For patients who were treated by him, and medical professionals who were trained by him, his loss has deep meanings. In 1963, while working at the University of Colorado, Dr. Starzl performed the world’s first liver transplant. He also performed the first successful liver transplant in 1967. At that time, it was widely believed that allogenic (non-identical) human kidneys could not be transplanted, but Dr. Starzl succeeded in this attempt in 1962 and 1963 by combining azathioprine and corticosteroids in allogenic kidney transplants. This opened the way for a long series of kidney transplants and gave new impetus to clinical attempts throughout the world. Dr. Starzl’s achievements during his lifetime have touched not only his immediate surroundings but have had a very wide halo effect. This halo effect has to do with generating a new medical field altogether from almost a scratch. For those of us in the field of transplantation, his lifetime contributions has determined our careers and passion, even for those who have never met him, talked to him or worked with him.