Renowned Surgeon and Liver Transplant Pioneer Dr. Thomas Starzl Passes Away at Age 90

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Dr. Thomas Starzl, the celebrated surgeon pioneering the liver transplant surgery and the trailblazer behind the world's maiden baboon-to-human liver transplant died last Saturday at the age of 90. He was also known for his famous works on anti-rejection drugs.

According to the University of Pittsburgh, who spoke on behalf of Dr. Thomas Starzl's family, the famous doctor dubbed as the "Father of Modern Transplantation" died peacefully last weekend, March 4, at his home in Pittsburgh. Supporters of Starzl works believed that his works have a great impact on the lives of those people who underwent organ transplants.

It was in 1992 when Dr. Thomas Strazl carved his name in the history of medicine as he stitched a baboon's liver to a man, who was able to live for another 70 days. This operation was a product of his brilliant research about the alternatives to scarce human livers and has received major recognitions around the world.

He then conducted the same liver transplant surgery in which the patient lived 25 days. But Dr. Thomas Starzl's works were not only confined to organ transplants as he also pursued continued development of drugs to expand organ sources that will be included in those transplants.

The popular surgeon, Dr. Thomas Strazl, began the development of cyclosporine combined with steroids in Denver that catered a potential solution to organ rejection. But the research in Denver was short-lived so he has to move in his hometown, Pittsburgh after the liver transplant program was phased out in the University of Colorado.

Dr. Thomas Strazl then served as the chief of transplant services at UPMC and was later named as the University of Pittsburgh Transplant Institute director, where he carried out his research on chimerism, claiming that new organs and old bodies learn to co-exist in this process. Due to the success of his works and research, the institute was renamed after him in 1996.