{"product_id":"the-graft-edmund-o-lawler-9781839999420","title":"The Graft: How a Pioneering Operation Sparked the Modern Age of Organ Transplants","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn a community hospital in suburban Chicago run by Catholic nuns, surgeons performed an operation never done in the world before. The team at the Little Company of Mary Hospital led by Richard Lawler transplanted a kidney in 1950 from a just-deceased woman into the abdominal cavity of a 44-year-old woman.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCritics in the medical community called the operation irresponsible because immunosuppressant drugs that prevent the rejection of a transplanted organ had yet to be developed. Some Catholic clergy considered the transplant sacrilegious because it \"desecrated\" the sacred body of a dead woman when her kidney was removed. Yet the nuns who ran the hospital blessed the procedure.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLawler said time alone would judge its success. Seventy years later, that transplant is largely lost to history--overshadowed by remarkable transplant surgeries and medical breakthroughs that have made life-saving kidney and other organ transplants almost routine. The book throws light on a seminal moment in medical history, offering new insights into the early days of human organ transplantation while also looking at the current national kidney crisis.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Edmund O. Lawler\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 183999942X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781839999420\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e First Hill Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/12\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 124\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.34lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.29d","brand":"Edmund O. Lawler","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48437587476735,"sku":"9781839999420","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_bbef55d4-0f93-4dc3-92b5-d3c81e43f734.jpg?v=1777162746","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-graft-edmund-o-lawler-9781839999420","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}