New Art Honors 50 Years of Organ Transplantation

This June, transplant patients and caregivers gathered together to formally unveil a piece of art dedicated to honoring the work of today’s Northwestern Medicine® Comprehensive Transplant Center staff, and everyone who came before them since Northwestern began performing organ transplants 50 years ago. The art, created by Donte Mearon, was signed with personal messages of gratitude by patients during a public celebration for the 50th anniversary of Northwestern Medicine’s organ transplant program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLZIn2dpP9w

Northwestern Medicine performed its first organ transplant in February, 1964. Today, Northwestern Medicine’s Comprehensive Transplant Center is one of the largest and most successful organ transplant centers in the America, and is a leader in living donor liver and kidney transplantation. Since 1964, Northwestern surgeons have performed more than 6,000 organ transplant surgeries and pioneered in transplantation research and technique. In order to make these critical services available to as many people as possible, Northwestern Medicine has opened satellite clinics in locations that include Peoria, Moline, Glenview and Joliet in Illinois, and Portage, Indiana. The Hispanic Transplant Program launched in 2006 making Northwestern the first institution in the country to have a specialized program dedicated to providing culturally sensitive transplant care to the Hispanic population.

To learn more about organ transplantation services at Northwestern Medicine, please visit the center’s website or call 312-695-8900.