THE TRANSPLANT: A True Account of a Modern Surgical Miracle

by A.Q. Mowbray ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 11, 1974

Almost like Dr. Kildare -- Sandy, the seventeen-year-old victim of this disease had previewed her situation on that program -- but substantiated by a good bit of research and specific clinical detail in which Mowbray has been backed up by the doctor who worked on this case -- a successful kidney transplant. Sandy was seventeen when she had complete renal failure (due to glomerulonephritis) and both kidneys had to be removed. Dialysis was then (1970), as it is now, only the next best life-saving procedure and an exorbitant one (Mowbray gives a round figure of $25,000; we understand it can be done for two-thirds less today with the right home assistance), but Sandy's general health favored the possibility of a transplant. The members of her family were ready to contribute a kidney, but they were found to be unsuitable donors. She waited 88 days before the necessary organ was found in a dying boy -- then the organ was urgently flown from Boston to Philadelphia where her doctor, Aaron Bannett, made the transfer. The whole complex surgical transaction to its potential later rejection is explicitly, sometimes technically, followed through. Mowbray wrote The Operation: this is again satisfactory popular surgery -- miracle medicine.

Pub Date: Oct. 11, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McKay

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION