Keith Reemtsma (5 December 1925 – 23 June 2000) was an American transplant surgeon, best known for the cross-species kidney transplantation operation from chimpanzee to human in 1964. With only the early immunosuppressants and no long-term dialysis, the female recipient survived nine months, long enough to return to work. Reemtsma was brought up on a Navajo reservation in Arizona, eventually moving to Utah and then graduating from Idaho State College in Pocatello in 1945. In the 1960s he was professor of surgery at Tulane University, Louisiana, and he later became chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Utah. Reemtsma also developed the intra-aortic balloon pump to bridge the time to heart transplant, and performed early research on pancreatic islet cell transplantation for diabetes mellitus. In 1971, he was appointed chairman of the Department of Surgery at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he was involved in developing a multidisciplinary approach to transplant services, as well as advocating surgical repair and reconstruction as an alternative to radical excision.
Early life and education Keith Reemtsma was born in Madera, California, on 5 December 1925, to the Presbyterian minister and missionary Henry and Pauline Reemtsma. He had one older sister, and from 1938 was raised on a Navajo reservation in Arizona when he attended a one-room school house which taught only to eighth grade. As he progressed in his education, Reemtsma moved from schools in Oklahoma to a Presbyterian boarding school in Mount Pleasant, Utah, where he met his first wife to be, Ann Pierce. He attended Idaho State College as part of the United States Navy V-12 programme, where the federal government funded studies to participating colleges. Here, wearing Navy uniform was mandatory and he would have had to participate in strenuous exercise. He completed his pre-medical studies and graduated in 1945. Reemtsma subsequently attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, graduating in 1949, and was inducted into the Phi Chi medical fraternity.
Early surgical training Reemtsma trained under paediatric surgeon C. Everett Koop who encouraged him to go to Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (CPMC) (now called NewYork–Presbyterian / Columbia University Medical Center or, simply NYP/Columbia) for his surgical residency, under paediatric thoracic surgeon, George Humphreys. Following his internship, his early surgical career was interrupted by the Korean War, where he served as a Navy doctor with the United States Marine Corps as part of US Navy Surgical Team, Far East Command. Returning to New York in 1954, he then completed his residency at CPMC in 1957, following which he moved south to Tulane University. Here, Reemtsma was recruited to help build a cardiac surgery service. However, he turned his attention toward renal transplantation and cross-species chimpanzee-to-human kidney transplants instead.
Surgical career
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