Encore: Organ Transplant | The Kidney Twins | 1

American Innovations

Wondery

Steven Johnson, History, Kids & Family, Education For Kids, Science

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2021

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A century ago, organ transplants were the stuff of science fiction. But a handful of experimental surgeons believed that transplants were not just possible – they had the potential to save thousands of lives. Then, in 1954, a man agreed to donate his kidney to his twin brother – and one surgeon finally got his chance to prove the doubters wrong.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to American Innovations Add Free on Amazon Music, download
0:06.0	the app today.
0:07.9	Join Wondery Plus, an Apple Podcast, or the Wondery app to listen to American Innovations
0:12.7	early and add free.
0:14.8	A listener note, over the past century, we've doubled life expectancy across the globe.
0:21.0	It's an extraordinary feat, and we're on the threshold of an even more radical extension
0:25.8	of life.
0:27.0	My new, multi-platform project, Extra Life, a short history living longer, includes
0:31.9	a new book and PPS series that delves into the breakthroughs that brought us here.
0:36.5	That's why we wanted to revisit our series on one of those breakthroughs, organ transplants.
0:42.3	Because while kidney, heart, and lung transplants are now mainstream procedures, it's recently
0:47.4	as the 1950s they were considered controversial.
0:50.8	It took a handful of doctors willing to experiment to make these life-saving surgeries commonplace.
0:56.8	This series originally aired in 2020.
0:59.2	Boston, 1947, just past midnight.
1:10.7	At a small research hospital, three trainee surgeons wheel a comatose patient down a deserted
1:17.0	dimly-led hallway.
1:18.9	They're dressed in blue surgical scrubs and keep their voices low.
1:23.2	One of the surgeons whispers to their leader, a handsome 30-year-old named David Hume.
1:28.4	Are you sure we can't do this in the OR?
1:31.1	Not unless you want your residency revoked.
1:33.9	Hume is a rising star here at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.
	...

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