The body’s filtration organs are the kidneys: they clean up the body, collecting waste left over from food processing. This makes them vulnerable to high blood pressure and high glucose levels in the blood. While they are still capable of self-repair for minor damage, that minor damage often does not manifest itself outwardly; by the time there are signs the kidneys are malfunctioning, they are already seriously compromised. This made kidney disease one of the hardest to treat, and made them a focus of transplant research.

On this day, October 30, in 1960, one of the first successful kidney transplants took place at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, led by Sir Michael Woodruff.

The operation was on a 49 year-old man with failing kidneys. His twin brother agreed to donate one of his kidneys – which also helped with the possibility of rejection of the organ – and the operation went successfully. Both men returned to work after several months of recovery, and lived for years afterward.