Samuel Lee Kountz Jr. (1930-1981) - Blackpast
As a member of organizations such as Alpha Omega Alpha, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, elected to many editorial boards and many more affiliations, Kountz was valued as a family man and figurehead who inspired many and enhanced the medical field with his professional manner, intellect and charisma.
Description Dr. Notable Facts Dr. While working at Stanford University Medical Center in , he was the first to perform a successful kidney transplant between teo non identical twin humans In , Dr. Cheek of Howard University College of Medicine. Kountz received numerous other honorary degrees. An internship at the prestigious Stanford Service, a San Francisco hospital, followed during the next two years.
He completed a rigorous surgical residency there in The second was receiving the Giannini Fellowship in surgery that supported his postdoctoral training at the San Francisco County Hospital and his postgraduate medical studies at Hammersmith Hospital in London, England, from to , where he continued his surgical training.
The apex of his achievement as a resident physician at Stanford was performing, in , the first kidney transplant between a recipient and a donor who were not identical twins. This single achievement guaranteed his status as a pioneer in surgery. Throughout his career, he performed more than kidney transplants. In , he performed the first renal transplant in Egypt as a visiting Fulbright professor in the United Arab Republic.
Samuel kountz biography
After returning from overseas, Kountz was made assistant professor of surgery at Stanford University in , becoming an associate professor in He was also director of the transplant service of the University of California at San Francisco until It was here that Kountz made the breakthrough observation that high doses of a steroid hormone, methylprednisolone, arrested the rejection of transplanted kidneys.
This discovery led directly to the current drug regimens that make organ transplants using donations from unrelated donors routine. The years between and were his most productive. The above discovery and his advocacy of earlier re-implantation—that is, the implantation of a second kidney at the earliest signs of rejection—were his two greatest contributions to the field.
Kountz became professor of surgery and director of the transplant service at the University of California at San Francisco. The combination of an academic and a clinical appointment clearly showed the pathway he intended to follow. He told friends that he wanted to improve healthcare for the black community there.
Dr samuel kountz biography
On a temporary teaching visit to South Africa in , Kountz contracted a neurological disease that remains undisclosed to this day. Its outcome, permanent brain damage, disabled him both physically and mentally. Kountz remained chronically ill thereafter until he died on December 23, , at home in Kings Point, New York. He was buried near his home in Great Neck, New York.
Kountz wrote seventy-six professional papers and other scholarly articles. UA awarded him an honorary JD degree as a distinguished alumnus, honoring his pioneering achievements in the field of kidney transplant research in In , Kountz was elected president of the Society of University Surgeons as an expression of respect for his clinical and research achievements.
Dr samuel kountz
For additional information: Altman, Lawrence K. Page Talk. Read Change Change source View history. Tools Tools. In other projects.
Wikidata item. Samuel L. Lexa , Arkansas , United States. Early life and career [ change change source ]. Illness and death [ change change source ]. References [ change change source ]. Impressed by Kountz's energy and enthusiasm, Fulbright asked him what he planned to do following graduation. Kountz told him that he hoped to attend a black medical school, where he could realize his lifelong dream of becoming a surgeon.
Kountz, Samuel L. 1930-1981 - Encyclopedia.com: Samuel Lee Kountz Jr. (October 30, – December 23, ) was an African-American kidney transplantation surgeon from Lexa, Arkansas. He was most distinguished for his pioneering work in the field of kidney transplantations, and in research, discoveries, and inventions in Renal Science.
Fulbright urged him to consider the medical school in Little Rock, AR, instead. Kountz applied but was rejected; he spent the next two years completing graduate work in chemistry at the university's Fayetteville campus. Then, on the basis of his accomplishments, he was awarded a full medical scholarship, and in was admitted to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Kountz completed a master's degree in chemistry in ; two years later he received his M. He spent the next year as an intern with the highly competitive Stanford Service of San Francisco General Hospital , and, in , he began his surgical training at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
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It was at Stanford that he studied the field of organ transplantation, and decided to make transplant surgery his life's work. He was still a resident in , when he made medical history by performing the first kidney transplant using a non-twin donor. Among Kountz's other contributions were the discovery that large doses of the steroid drug methylprednisolone could reverse acute rejection of a transplanted kidney, and that re-implantation the implantation of a second donor kidney at the earliest indication that the first might be rejected could mean the difference between the death and survival for transplant patients.
A tireless proponent of organ donation, he once performed a kidney transplant on live television, The Today Show , in , inspiring some 20, viewers to offer their kidneys to patients who needed them. In addition, his groundbreaking research in the area of tissue typing helped improve the results of kidney transplantation and led to the increased use of kidneys from unrelated donors.
The University of Arkansas awarded him the honorary Juris Doctor in He developed the largest kidney transplant research and training program in the country at the University of California, San Francisco. At the time of his death, he had personally performed some kidney transplants , the most performed by any physician in the world at that time.