Saturday, 11/25, is Mayo Clinic’s 60th anniversary of its first organ transplant

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https://www.kttc.com/2023/11/24/saturday-is-mayo-clinics-60th-anniversary-its-first-organ-transplant/

Saturday is Mayo Clinic’s 60th anniversary of its first organ transplant
By Eric Min
Published: Nov. 24, 2023 at 6:44 PM EST|Updated: 14 hours ago

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – November 25, 1963, marks Mayo Clinic’s first kidney transplant from a living donor led by Dr. George Hallenbeck.
This successful surgery is the hospital’s first organ transplant which happened 60-years ago here in 2023.
“It’s a tremendous privilege,” Mayo’s Kidney Transplant Program Surgical Director Dr. Patrick Dean said. “...to have been able to provide transplant services to patients in the Rochester are and all around the world for the last 60-years.”
According to Mayo Clinic, the hospital has performed 31,568 transplant surgeries as of October 31; of those surgeries, the top three include 16,639 kidney transplants, 10,223 liver transplants and 2,081 heart transplants.

With its decades of experience, Dr. Patrick Dean said Mayo Clinic is working to improve its transplant services.
He said, “Gaining a deeper understanding of immunology of the reasons people actually lose these kidneys will hopefully help us to allow people to live better lives with the same kidney rather than needing a second or even a third kidney transplant during their life.”
Dr. Dean said donors are significant contributors to the success of transplant surgeries.
“I think it is important to just emphasize none of these transplants would have been possible without the donors who made the transplant possible. None of these transplants would happen without the donors. And so, the donors play a very important part in what we do in any area of transplantation.”
Mayo Clinic Kidney Transplant Program Surgical Director Dr. Patrick Dean
Dr. Dean encouraged everyone to consider organ donation. He said the top challenge for transplant services remains the number of willing donors.