Remembering John Merrill

On April 4, 1984 the transplant pioneer Dr. John P. Merrill died in an unfortunate boating accident in the Bahamas. The New York Times published an obituary soon thereafter. JAMA also recognized Merrill’s contributions by republishing his first author landmark article from 1956 titled: “Successful homotransplantation of the human kidney between identical twins”.

In 1954, Merrill at the Peter Bent Brigham, led the medical team that performed the first successful kidney transplantation. Merrill spent his entire career at the Brigham and at Harvard Medical School. He is best known for his work in transplantation, but he also made major contributions in dialysis, acute renal failure, and hypertension.

The events leading up to the first kidney transplantation are described in detail in another post, but suffice it to say that Merrill contribution was monumental and culminated in his colleague Joseph Murray being awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990. I recommend you read a description by NPR accessible here.

In addition to Merrill’s contributions to kidney transplantation, in the late 1940s Merrill led (as a medical resident) the development of dialysis at the Brigham. Athough Merrill did not build the Brigham-Kolff kidney - for that the credit goes to Carl Walter and Edward Olson - he led its use in treating patients with kidney failure.

Dr. John P. Merrill (left) explains the workings of the Brigham-Kolff 

dialyzer to Richard Herrick (middle) and his twin brother Ronald (right). 

Richard Herrick received the world's first successful kidney transplant.

Writes Dr. George Thorn who was Chairman of Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital: “With our tradition of kidney disease research, we felt we should sponsor the so-called artificial kidney. But who could take on this complex—and risky—research project? My choice was John P. Merrill. With his excellent medical background ... four years as a flight surgeon ... interest in cardiorenal disease ... and the intellectual curiosity that characterizes a born researcher ... he was ideally suited.”

There is a superb “must-read” description published in CJASN by Murray Epstein of Merrill’s contribution to nephrology titled: “John P. Merrill: The Father of Nephrology as a Specialty”. In this article, Epstein provides details about Merrill’s contributions to nephrology.

Fuisz in “Essays in Medicine: The Brigham, John P. Merrill and the Evolution of Nephrology” (quoted by Epstein in his CJASN article) writes:

“In the years I spent as a member of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital house staff, I had the privilege of gaining some unique insights into both Merrill-the-physician and Merrill-the-man.

As a physician, history will accord Dr. Merrill a long sequence of outstanding scientific contributions in the field of nephrology. And history will say it was he who played an integral role in making renal transplantation a lifesaving tool. But I see Merrill-the-physician in a different light. I see him as a very courageous man. I say that because as a member of the Brigham house staff during the early days of transplantation, I know how open to criticism he was. I know, he knew, there were many whisperings in the scientific world about the audacity of his concepts. The easy way would have been to back down; after all, he was a world-leading nephrologist already … so what could be the personal gain?

But John Merrill persisted in pursuing his vision. And John Merrill won … mostly because he is courageous”