Transplant history timeline
1963 Methodist surgeons perform the hospital’s first organ transplant, a kidney.
1968 Dr. Michael E. DeBakey performs one of the world’s first heart transplants at Methodist.
1968 The world's first multi-organ donor saves four lives with a heart, a lung, and two kidneys at Methodist.
1985 Methodist surgeons perform their first liver transplant and Texas’ first heart-lung transplant.
1987 The nation’s first successful single lung transplant is performed at Methodist.
1990 Methodist's first kidney-pancreas transplant.
1993 First pancreas transplant at Methodist.
2000 Methodist surgeons implant the nation’s first MicroMed DeBakey-Noon ventricular assist device.
2002 Texas’ first islet transplant is performed at Methodist.
2004 Methodist surgeons perform the first heart-liver transplant in Texas.
2005 The world’s first multi-organ transplant in a patient with a ventricular assist device takes place at Methodist.
2006 A Methodist patient becomes the world’s first to undergo chemotherapy while implanted with a ventricular assist device.
2008 Methodist surgeons perform the hospital’s first islet autograft for pancreatitis, a procedure in which islets from the patient’s own pancreas are extracted and transplanted into the liver to enable continuing insulin production without the need for immunosuppressive drugs.’
2009 The first community clinic of the Methodist J.C. Walter Jr. Transplant Center opens in Sugar Land, and Methodist surgeons perform the first three-way kidney swap, the first lung-liver transplant and the first bloodless lung transplant for a Jehovah's Witness.
2010 The Methodist Transplant Center is renamed the Methodist J.C. Walter Jr. Transplant Center in honor of Texas philanthropist and heart recipient J.C. Walter Jr.
2011 Methodist participates in the nation's longest cross-country kidney swap, with 30 donors and 30 recipients, a second transplant community clinic opens in West Houston, and the Transplant Center establishes a formal partnership with UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas.
For more information, please call 1-888-393-3986.
Referral requests: If you’re a referring physician or a patient who would like to schedule a transplant evaluation, please call our Referral center at 713-441-5451.
