http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2010/12/30/early_kidney_donor_herrick_gave_twin_brother_a_longer_life/Pioneer organ donor diesBy Bryan Marquard
Globe Staff / December 30, 2010
As Richard Herrick lay dying in Peter Bent Brigham Hospital 56 years ago, he had second thoughts about trying to make medical history. In another room waited his identical twin, Ronald, who planned to donate a kidney to Richard in what would become the world’s first successful human organ transplant that resulted in long-term survival.
“Ron got a note from Richard the night of the surgery telling him to get out of there and go home,’’ said Ronald’s wife, Cynthia. “Ron sent a note back saying, I’m here, and I’m going to stay, and that’s it.’’
And so it was. On Dec. 23, 1954, Dr. Joseph Murray removed a kidney from Ronald and implanted it in Richard. Years later, Murray shared a Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking work. For the Herrick brothers, then 23, the results were more immediate and personal. Ronald gave Richard eight more years of life. Previous transplant recipients had lived for only a few months at best.
Ronald Herrick, who suffered from heart ailments that prompted him to retire in 1997, died Monday in the Augusta Rehabilitation Center in Augusta, Maine, where he was recuperating from heart surgery in October. He was 79 and lived in Belgrade, Maine.
This is interesting, both for the extension of the recipient's life - 8 years - and how long the donor lived afterward. If 8 years seems brief, pioneering efforts like this tend to lead to learning about the next obstacle or set of obstacles. IIRC, the patient in the first heart transplant lived only a few weeks, if that long.
