Pioneering kidney transplant donor dies at 88

This ushered in a new age of living related donors. At our facility the mortality rate of these procedures are less than 1% and it often means a whole new life for the recipient. Because of brave people willing to take risks we are this point today.

Juanita Smallwood Osborne, who became one of the first living organ donors when she gave a kidney to her ailing son in the mid-1960s, has died at 88.

Osborne died Thursday in Ashland, Ky., of complications from aspiration pneumonia, said her son, Burl Osborne, a former managing editor and chairman of The Associated Press and publisher emeritus of The Dallas Morning News.

Juanita Osborne donated her kidney in 1966, when most successful organ transplants had been performed primarily between identical twins, her son said. The risks of unsuccessful surgery were high, but he was in end-stage renal disease.www.sfgate.com.../n/a/2009/01/24/national/a102254S04.DTL&tsp=1

True. My bother-in-law might need a transplant due to his failing kidneys. The wife is a candidate for being a donor. Hopefully, it won't have to reach that point.

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[edit on 30-1-2009 by 12m8keall2c]