Transplanted Kidney

Openhanded nature gives people two kidneys, but only one is really needed to do the job (regulating the body's water balance and preventing the accumulation of waste products). Last week in Chicago, trying a desperate experiment on a woman doomed to die because both kidneys were hopelessly diseased, doctors performed the first human kidney transplanting on record.

Both the mother and sister of Mrs. Ruth Tucker, 49, had died of the disease which sent her to Chicago's Little Company of Mary Hospital. There is no known cure for polycystic kidneys, an ailment in which cysts form and destroy the normal kidney tissue. After talking things over with her husband, Mrs. Tucker agreed to let Dr. Richard Lawler, 54 staff member at the hospital, try a transplant.

While Mrs. Tucker stayed in the hospital for five weeks, staff doctors looked for a suitable donor. Finally they found a dying woman of Mrs. Tucker's age, general size and blood type. Ten minutes after the donor died, Surgeon Lawler and Dr. James West began operations in adjoining rooms. Dr. Lawler removed one of Mrs. Tucker's diseased kidneys while Dr. West removed a healthy kidney from the dead woman.

Forty visiting surgeons and doctors then watched Dr. Lawler transplant the healthy kidney into Mrs. Tucker's body, skillfully fastening vein, artery and ureter. When the clamps were removed, 45 minutes after the donor had died, the kidney in Mrs. Tucker's body took on a healthy pink color.

Some doctors, doubting that the operation would work, pointed out that similar transplant operations on animals have not been entirely successful.

At week's end Mrs. Tucker seemed to be fairly on the mend. What pleased the doctors most: she was calling for the bedpan at regular intervals.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.