Richard C. Lillehei Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

In 1986, the Lillehei Surgical Society was founded in the names of the three Lillehei brothers.

an American transplant surgeon best remembered for the world’s first successful simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant in 1966 (sometimes quoted as 1967) and the first known human intestinal transplantation.

On 17 December 1966, Lillehei assisted William Kelly transplant part of a pancreas and a whole kidney into a 28-year-old woman with type I diabetes and renal disease. Post operative problems led to a decision to remove the graft and she died soon after. On New Year’s Eve 1966, Lillehei led the world’s first successful simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant. It involved transplanting the whole pancreas, accompanying duodenum and one kidney. The recipient survived four and a half months.

He completed his early education from West Side High School in Edina, Minnesota and in 1948 graduated from the University of Minnesota. After graduating in medicine in 1951 from the University’s medical school, he spent two years at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and gained his PhD in Surgery from the University of Minnesota in 1960.

Richard C. Lillehei (10 December 1927 – 1 April 1981)