Fifty years ago, Ronald Herrick wasn’t thinking about making medical history that would one day lead to saving countless lives. He just wanted to save one life — his brother’s. He said it took him no time at all to agree to donate a kidney to his dying twin, Richard. But that 5 1/2-hour operation on Dec. 23, 1954, would not only keep Richard alive for eight more years, it would lead to thousands of kidney transplants and ultimately the transplant of other organs from the heart to the liver. Herrick’s doctor would win a Nobel Prize.
