Dr. Kountz Legacy: The Breakthrough of Kidney Transplant

Overcoming the odds, particularly when the odds appear to be stacked against you is a test that many individuals faced or encountered. Dr. Samuel Lee Kountz Jr. had the odds piled up against him. Thanks to his determination, he beat them all.

Samuel chose at age 8 to end up a specialist. He confronted his first test when he fizzled his placement test to his nearby Arkansas College. That didn't stop him, however, he requested that the school president give him another chance and the president actually did. Kountz got into school and earned As and Bs. He, in any case, proceeded to get an advanced education in natural chemistry, known to many Biochemistry and was admitted to the University of Arkansas' Medicinal School. For some, these accomplishments would be all that could possibly be needed. In any case, for Dr. Kountz, it was the beginning of his medical career to enhance medication and to change the face of history.

The Problem
Dr. Kountz was particularly keen on a procedure that was still banded new in the 1950's-the kidney transplant. For some patients, a kidney transplant adds months or years to one's life. Be that as it may, at that point a patient's body would reject a kidney and the patient would just die. Dr. Kountz was resolved to see that kidney transplant spared lives and kept patients' sound for a considerable length of time.

Fixing the problem
Kountz discovered the root of the problem, why and how a patient's body rejected the transplanted kidney. Propelled to enter the field, he got the Giannini Fellowship Award to conduct research in transplantation and immunology at Hammersmith Hospital in London. He found that the patient's cell attacked and destroyed the small blood cells of the transplanted kidney. So the new kidney would bite the dust from lack of blood supplied oxygen. He and others at Stanford University built up a route for doctors to watch the flow of the kidney blood supply following medical procedure so the doctors can give the patient’s the right kind of drugs at the right time, so the bodies can overcome the rejection process.

In 1959, Kountz performed the first successful kidney transplant. He proceeded to build up a method to keep the body organs healthy for 6 hours in the wake of being taken from the donor. He likewise set up an arrangement of organ donors cards all through the National Kidney Foundation. Also, in his successful career, Dr. Kountz transplanted more than 1,000 kidneys himself and paved way for thousands more.

His Legacy Lives On
Kountz died in 1981 after a crippling sickness contacted during a visiting professorship in South Africa. Remembered by associates long after his demise, his legacy continues in schools, scholarships, and awards named in his honor. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People presents an Afro-Academic, Technological and Scientific Olympic program grant yearly in his memory

Image source: donatelivememorial.blogspot.com