- World Organ Donation Day is observed every year on 13 August across the world. It is celebrated with the aim of raising awareness about organ donation.
- Apart from this, “National Organ Donation Day” is celebrated every year on 27 November in India.
- The day is celebrated to dispel the myths surrounding organ donation.
- It seeks to encourage people to donate their healthy organs after death as this will save more lives.
- It aims to help people realize that many people lose their lives due to non-availability of healthy organs. Thus, voluntarily donating your healthy organs can change the lives of many.
First successful organ transplant
- In 1953, the first temporarily successful transplant of a human kidney was performed by Jean Hamburger in Paris. A kidney transplant was done from the mother to a 16-year-old boy.
- The first long-term successful kidney transplant was performed in the US in 1954.
- Ronald Lee Herrick donated a kidney to his twin brother, Richard Herrick.
- This successful transplant was done by Dr. Joseph Murray. For this the doctor received the “Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine” in 1990.