Samuel L. Kountz

Samuel L. Kountz was an African-American kidney transplantation surgeon, born in Lexa, Arkansas, in 1930 and dead in 1981 at the age of 51. He graduated from what is now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, took his medical degree at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and trained in surgery at Stanford. In 1961, while still a resident, he performed the first kidney transplant between people who were not identical twins. He found that large doses of methylprednisolone could reverse acute rejection, helped develop the prototype of the Belzer kidney perfusion machine and advanced tissue typing. He chaired surgery at SUNY Downstate Medical Center from 1972, performed about 500 kidney transplants, and urged organ donation, once operating on live television. A brain illness contracted in South Africa in 1977 ended his career.