Daughter, father celebrate 50-year milestone of kidney transplant at UCLA

Denice Lombard and her father, Ted, made history in 1967 by becoming one of the first father-daughter duos to survive kidney transplant surgery in the United States.Today, 50 years later, they both are thriving and are marking the anniversary of Denice ’s transplant surgery at UCLA to urge more people to consider becoming organ donors.“I am so very thankful to my dad for giving me the gift of life, not once, but twice,” said Denice, 62, who lives near Washington, D.C. “If you want living proof that kidney donors and their recipients can lead full, happy, healthy lives, just look at us.”For the first time since that life-saving operation, the Lombard family reunited recently at UCLA, where doctors performed the surgery a half-century ago and helped to change the course of medicine.“It was a big gamble,” said Dr. Albin Gritsch,  surgical director of the kidney and pancreas transplant program at UCLA, who was not involved in Denice ’s care at the time. “Denice’s transplant was very brave and pioneering, especially considering she was only 13 years old.”While common today, kidney transplants were still considered experimental in the mid-1960s, Gritsch said, and were generally not performed on children.“Only about half of the transplanted kidneys were viable after a year, meaning doctors were reluctant to approve the surgery for children,” he said.The odds didn ’t matter to Denice’s father, Ted, though. “I lost one daughter already,” Lombard sa...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news