Dr. James Hardy: Surgeon Who Performed the First Human Lung Transplant D

Dr. James D. Hardy was an American surgeon who performed the first human lung transplant. Born on May 14, 1918, in Newala, Alabama, he earned his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1942.

On June 11, 1963, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Hardy transplanted a lung into patient John Russell, who lived 18 days. In 1964 he performed the first transplant of a chimpanzee heart into a human. He chaired the university's surgery department from 1955 to 1987.

Hardy wrote 24 books and hundreds of papers and served as president of the American College of Surgeons and the American Surgical Association. He married Louise Sams in 1949 and had four daughters, all doctors. He died in Mississippi on February 19, 2003, at age 84.

Achievements: First human lung transplant (1963), first animal-to-human heart transplant (1964), president of the American College of Surgeons.

Birth: May 14, 1918 - Newala, Alabama.

Profession: Surgeon.

Interesting Facts: He withdrew from the race for the first human heart transplant, which went to Christiaan Barnard in 1967.