| 1822: | Fresh autograft of skin (Dr. Burger). |
| 1869: | Fresh allograft of skin (Dr. Jacques Louis Reverdin, Switzerland). |
| 1906: | First corneal transplant (Dr. Edward Zirm). |
| 1908: | Successful cadaveric knee joint transplant (Dr. Eric Lexer). |
| 1911: | First use of homologous vein tissue in arterial reconstruction (Dr. Yamanouchi). |
| 1949: | Establishment of U.S. Navy Tissue Bank. |
| 1953: | First corneal transplant in Wisconsin at Marquette Medical School. |
| 1954: | First kidney transplant (Dr. Joseph E. Murray, Peter Brent Brigham Hospital, Boston, MA). |
| 1955: | First fresh heart valve allograft put into descending aorta (Dr. Gordon Murray). |
| 1962: | First fresh heart valve transplants in cardiac position (Sir Brian Barrat-Boyes, New Zealand, and Dr. Donald Ross, United Kingdom). |
| 1963: | First liver transplant (Dr. Thomas Starzl, University of Colorado, Denver). |
| 1963: | First lung transplant (Dr. James Hardy, University of Mississippi, Jackson). |
| 1964: | First eye bank in Wisconsin, Wisconsin Lions Eye Bank, opens in Milwaukee. |
| 1966: | First simultaneous pancreas/kidney transplant (Drs. Richard Lillehei, William Kelly, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.) |
| 1967: | First successful liver transplant (Dr. Thomas Starzl, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colo.) |
| 1967: | First heart transplant (Dr. Christian Barnard, Groote Schur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa). |
| 1968: | First isolated pancreas transplant (Dr. Norman Shumway, Stanford University Hospital, Stanford, Calif.) |
| 1968: | National Conference on Commissioners on Uniform State Laws draws up first legislative proposal addressing organ donation, the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA). |
| 1968: | St. Luke's Medical Center performs first heart transplant in the Midwest. |
| 1969: | First pancreas transplant (Dr. Lillche, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). |
| 1969: | The Anatomical Gift Act is established in Wisconsin. |
| 1971: | Introduction of cryopreserved human skin allografts. |
| 1974: | Use of cyropreserved venous allograft (Dr. Dent and Dr. Weber). |
| 1975: | First use of cyropreserved heart valves (Dr. Mark OíBrien, Australia, and Dr. William Angell, Stanford Medical Center, Palo Alto, California). |
| 1977: | Assembly Bill 177 allows the placement of the Uniform Donor Card authorization on the back of the Wisconsin driver's license. |
| 1978: | Introduction of Cyclosporine as a major immunosuppresant. |
| 1978: | Kidney transplants included under Medicare coverage (Social Security Act Amendment, P.L. 92-603) |
| 1980: | National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws recommends Uniform Determination of Death Act for adoption by all 50 states. |
| 1981: | First heart/lung transplant (Dr. Norman Shumway, Stanford Medical Center, Palo Alto, California). |
| 1983: | First successful single lung transplant (Dr. Joel Cooper, Toronto Lung Transplant Group, Toronto General Hospital, Canada) |
| 1983: | Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital performs the first liver transplant in Wisconsin. |
| 1984: | National Transplant Act (P.L. 98.507) establishes National Task Force on Organ Transplantation, legislates federally funded centralized waiting list for organ recipients, outlaws buying and selling of human organs, mandates establishment of scientific registries to monitor transplant centers, organ procurement organizations and hospitals. |
| 1985: | Oregon, California and New York are first states to pass required laws mandating that hospitals ensure that families of potential donors are offered the opportunity to donate. |
| 1986: | First successful double lung transplant (Dr. Joel Cooper, Toronto Lung Transplant Group, Toronto General Hospital, Canada) |
| 1986: | Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (P.L. 99-509) amends Social Security Act to require all hospitals to adopt policies and procedures for identification of potential donors and notification of families of their option to donate. This Routine Notification requirement supersedes state laws and directly ties Medicare funding to hospital compliance. |
| 1986: | First tissue bank in Wisconsin, Wisconsin Tissue Bank, is established at St. Luke's Medical Center. |
| 1986: | UW solution, an organ preservation solution, is developed and becomes the industry standard throughout the country. |
| 1988: | First successful liver-intestinal transplant (Dr. David Grant, University of London Ontario, Ontario, Canada.) |
| 1988: | Joint Commission on Accredation of Health Care Organizations sets donor identification and notification standards. |
| 1988: | Southeastern Wisconsin Organ Procurement Organization receives federal designation as an organ procurement organization. It's later renamed Wisconsin Donor Network. |
| 1988: | Joint Commission on Accredation of Health Care Organizations sets donor identification and notification standards. |
| 1989: | First successful living-related liver transplant Dr. Christoph Broelsch, University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, Ill |
| 1989: | Clinical investigators begin using an experimental drug called FK 506 for kidney, liver, heart and lung recipients. Results suggest that this drug is effective, but clinical trials continue to assess its safety and efficacy. |
| 1990: | First successful living-related lung transplant Dr. Vaughn A. Starnes, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA |
| 1993: | Continuing shortages in Organ and Tissue Donation lead to renewed interest in transplanting organs from animals such as baboons (xenografting). Baboon-to-human liver and heart transplants have been attempted, with limited success. A new research strategy involves developing a line of pigs with the appropriate human genes to help prevent rejection of organs such as hearts, livers and kidneys transplanted from these animals. |
| 1994: | The FDA approves a new medication for use in transplant recipients: Prograf (formerly known as FK506) marks a significant advance in the understanding and suppression of the human rejection response and in the lessening of unwanted side effects. |
| 1995: | A new study by Dr. Paul Terasaki and colleagues at UCLA shows that spouses are an important source of living-donor kidney transplants. According to the Terasaki study, the three-year graft survival rate for spouse-to-spouse transplants (85%) is comparable to that seen in parent-to-child transplants (82%) and better than that seen in transplants from non-living donors (70%). Living donation is becoming an increasingly important source of kidney and other transplants because of continuing shortages of non-living donors. |
| 1995: | Two more new medicines are approved by the FDA for use in transplant recipients: CellCept (mycophenolate mofetil), and Neoral, a new formulation of cyclosporine. These drugs hold promise for providing even better control of rejection with fewer side effects. |
| 1995: | At John Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Lloyd Ratner, M.D., and Louis Kavoussi, M.D., perform the world's first laparoscopic live-donor nephrectomy in which a patient's kidney is removed through a hole slightly larger than a silver dollar. Laparoscopic live-donor nephrectomies mean fewer post-op days in the hospital, speedier recovery, less scarring and decreased post-operative pain. |
| 1996: | The number of kidney transplants using living donors (both related and unrelated) continues to grow. A total of 11,099 kidney transplants were performed in 1996 -- 3,389 of which involved kidneys recovered from living donors. |
| 1997: | The Department of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery announces a research breakthrough that raises new hope that acute transplant rejection may be prevented and reversed without the need for chronic immunosuppressant drugs. Navy researchers report that they are now able to prevent kidney transplant rejection in primates with different histocompatibility factors through the use of a combination of a specific fusion protein and a specific monoclonal antibody. Further trials are necessary to determine future applicability of the technique to humans. |
| 1997: | Wisconsin Donor Network reaches a high of 63 donors and repeats that number in 1998. |
| 1998: | Wisconsin Donor Network holds first ever Sarah's Stride run/walk to raise funds for organ donor awareness. |
| 1999: | Wisconsin passes legislation allowing state employees paid leave to serve as bone marrow or living organ donors. |
| 1999: | The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves Rapamune (sirolimus), a new immunosuppressant drug used to prevent organ rejection in patients receiving kidney transplants. This new drug is to be taken along with cyclosporine and corticosteroids. |
| 1999: | Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital performs the first piggy-back liver transplant in Wisconsin. |
| 1999: | UW Hospital performs first adult-to-adult living liver transplant in the state of Wisconsin. |
| 2000: | The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) begins pilot testing two new programs aimed at increasing the availability of organs for transplantation. In "paired exchange," two incompatible living donor-recipient pairs may be able to swap donors so that each recipient can be transplanted. Another option is "list-paired exchange," in which a would-be donor who is mismatched with the intended recipient can still donate a kidney to the general pool. In return, the intended recipient advances on the waiting list for a non-living-donor kidney. |
| 2000: | Concern about the well-being of live organ donors leads the National Kidney Foundation and the American Societies of Transplantation, Transplant Surgeons and Nephrology to convene the Live Organ Donor Consensus Group. A set of recommended practice guidelines is developed by this group to assist transplant physicians, primary care providers and health care planners provide the best care for living donors and potential donors. The guidelines are published in the December 18, 2000 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. |
| 2000: | Wisconsin passes legislation requiring organ donation to be taught in all driver's education programs. |
| 2000: | Wisconsin passes legislation requiring organ donation to be taught in all driver's education programs. |
| 2001: | New York becomes the sixth state to pass a law that grants paid leave for state employees who serve as living organ donors. These state laws serve to complement the Organ Donor Leave Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1999. It is hoped that these laws will encourage private companies to make similar allowances for employees who wish to become living donors and, thus, help to increase the number of organs donated for transplantation. |
| 2001: | Wisconsin Coalition on Donation is formed. |
| 2002: | Wisconsin Donor Network reaches a new high with 68 donors. |
| 2002: | First pancreas islet transplant in the state is performed at UW Hospital and Clinics. |
