John P. Merrill

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John Putnam Merrill (born March 10, 1917 in Hartford , Connecticut , † April 14, 1984 in Hope Town , Bahamas ) was an American nephrologist . In 1954, he led the team at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston that carried out the first successful kidney transplant . He was also a pioneer in the development of dialysis in the United States.

life and work

Merrill graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor's degree in 1938 and Harvard Medical School with a degree in 1942. He was then interned at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital , Boston , before serving four years of military service in World War II and thereafter the US Air Force performed as a surgeon, of which he was stationed in the Pacific for two years and was involved in early atomic bomb tests ( Operation Crossroads ). He was also the flight surgeon on the Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (although he was not on the bomber on the day it was dropped ). He then returned to the Peter Brent Brigham Hospital, where he continued his residency from 1947 to 1950 and worked in medical research. A dialysis machine was developed there under his direction (Brigham-Kolff Dialyzer). From 1950 he was a researcher for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Brigham Hospital and in 1952 he was at the Hôpital Necker-Enfants malades in Paris . There, in 1953 , Jean Hamburger performed the first kidney transplant with a living donor, but the patient only survived for a short time.

In 1954 he led the interdisciplinary team that carried out the first successful kidney transplant with living donors, in which the patient survived for eight years until 1963. It was carried out on December 23, 1954 between the Herrick twin brothers, recipient Richard, 24, who had terminal kidney disease ( glomerulonephritis ) and was on dialysis machine, and donor Ronald Herrick. The surgeon was Joseph Edward Murray . He was also later involved in the further development of kidney transplantation. In 1959, for example, he led a transplant between brothers who were not genetically identical twin brothers, where the immune system was still suppressed with high doses of X-rays.

From 1950 he taught at Harvard Medical School and received a full professorship there in 1970. Most recently he lived in Weston and on Squirrel Island in Maine . In 1984 he died in a boat accident while on vacation in the Bahamas. He was found drowned in the harbor basin after his last job on a boat (he was a passionate sailor).

In 1961 he was awarded the Amory Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , of which he became a member in 1963. In 1969 he received the Canada Gairdner International Award . In 1981 he was accepted as an external member ( associé étranger ) in the Académie des sciences .

As a hobby he played the clarinet in a Dixieland band. He was married and had two sons and a daughter.

Fonts

  • The treatment of renal failure; therapeutic principles in the management of acute and chronic uremia , 2nd edition, New York: Grune and Stratton 1965
  • The treatment of renal insufficiency: therapeutic principles of the treatment of acute and chronic uremia with special consideration of the electrolyte balance , Urban and Schwarzenberg 1959
  • with Suzanne Merrill: Squirrel Island, Maine. The first hundred years , Freeport, Maine 1973
  • with Constantine L. Hampers: Uremia; progress in pathophysiology and treatment , New York: Grune and Stratton 1971

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard Herrick even married the sister who looked after him at the time and had two children with her. USA Today, December 19, 2004
  2. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter M. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 22, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Merrill, John P.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Merrill, John Putnam (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American medic
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Hartford , Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1984
Place of death Hope Town , Bahamas