Organ Transplant: The Kidney Twins | S26-E1

American Innovations

Wondery

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

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2020

⏱️ 45 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	You're listening to an episode of a Wondery Plus exclusive series.
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0:08.9	early access to your favorite podcasts and more.
0:11.6	Find Wondery Plus in the Wundery app or on Apple
0:14.2	podcasts.
0:17.0	Wunder.
0:21.0	Boston,
0:23.4	1947, just past midnight.
0:26.1	At a small research hospital, three trainee surgeons wheel a
0:30.1	comatose patient down a deserted dimly led hallway.
0:34.0	They're dressed in blue surgical scrubs and keep their voices low.
0:38.0	One of the surgeons whispers to their leader, a handsome 30-year-old named David Hume.
0:43.7	Are you sure we can't do this in the OR?
0:46.4	Not unless you want your residency revoked.
0:49.1	Hume is a rising star here at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.
0:53.0	Usually he's bold, cocky, but not tonight.
0:56.0	Tonight he can barely keep his hands from shaking
0:59.0	as he carries a kidney in a metal tray.
1:02.0	The organ is small, no bigger than a pair. Such a tiny
1:05.7	thing to risk his entire career on. But Hume's ambitions outweigh his fears.
1:11.8	Tonight he wants to try an experimental treatment, one that's never been attempted.
1:16.9	Tonight he wants to perform a kidney transplant. Hardly anyone else in the hospital knows what Hume and his fellow surgeons are up to because if word got out they could lose their resonancies.
	...

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