World’s first organ donor dies aged 79

Ronald Lee Herrick donated a kidney to his identical twin, Richard, in a pioneering operation on 23 December 1954.

The successful surgery kept Herrick’s brother alive for eight years and was the first successful organ transplant, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Lead surgeon Dr Joseph Murray went on to win the Nobel prize.

The operation proved that transplants were possible and led to thousands of other successful kidney transplants, and later the transplant of other organs.

Here’s to the patients of the world that deserve Nobel Prize’s alongside their doctors.