World's First Human Organ Transplant

Dr. James W. West made medical history when he helped perform the world’s first human organ transplant in 1950 at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park on a woman in desperate need of a kidney.

In 1975, the longtime Beverly resident helped Monsignor Ignatius McDermott found Chicago’s Haymarket Center, a pioneering facility for the treatment of substance abuse.

The last surviving physician from the historic kidney-transplant team, Dr. West died July 24 at his home in Palm Desert, Calif., at 98.


 Thanks to MPHS Alumni Nan Brennan for sharing.


http://www.suntimes.com/14107929-761/transplant-pioneer-from-beverly-helped-launch-the-betty-ford-center.html