Dr. Thomas Starzl, Organ Transplantation Pioneer, Dies At Pittsburgh Home
March 5, 2017 11:17 AM
PITTSBURGH (
KDKA) — Dr. Thomas Starzl, who was a pioneer in organ transplantation, died at his Pittsburgh home Saturday.
He was 90 years old.
His family issued a statement that read, in part:
“Thomas Starzl was many things to many people. He was a pioneer, a legend, a great human, and a great humanitarian. He was a force of nature that swept all those around him into his orbit, challenging those that surrounded him to strive to match his superhuman feats of focus, will and compassion. His work in neuroscience, metabolism, transplantation and immunology has brought life and hope to countless patients, and his teaching in these areas has spread that capacity for good to countless practitioners and researchers everywhere. With determination and irresistible resolve, Thomas Starzl advanced medicine through his intuition and uncanny insight into both the technical and human aspects of even the most challenging problems. Even more extraordinary was his ability to gift that capacity to those around him, allowing his students and colleagues to discover the right stuff within themselves. Nobody who spent time with Thomas Starzl could remain unaffected.”
Dr. Starzl performed the world’s first liver transplant in 1963 and the first successful liver transplant in 1967, and he made medical advancements that helped prevent organ rejection and performed baboon-to-human organ transplants.
He first joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1981 and went on to work for the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC hospitals for many years.
In 1996, the University of Pittsburgh Transplantation Institute was renamed the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute in his honor, and Dr. Starzl held the title of director emeritus of the Institute and Distinguished Service Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.
