Richard C. Lillehei

Richard C. Lillehei (10 December 1927 - 1 April 1981) was an American transplant surgeon who performed the world's first successful simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant in 1966 (sometimes quoted as 1967) and the first known human intestinal transplantation. He came from a renowned medical family in Minneapolis; his father was a dentist and his brothers were cardiologist James Lillehei and cardiothoracic surgeon C. Walton Lillehei. The Lillehei Surgical Society is named in honour of the three brothers.

Early life and education Richard Carlton Lillehei was the son of a dentist from Minneapolis and the younger brother of cardiothoracic surgeon C. Walton Lillehei and cardiologist James Lillehei.

He completed his early education from West Side High School in Edina, Minnesota and in 1948 graduated from the University of Minnesota. After graduating in medicine in 1951 from the University's medical school, he spent two years at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and gained his PhD in Surgery from the University of Minnesota in 1960.

By 1973, he had performed 13 pancreas transplants.

His other fields of research included shock treatment, organ procurement, open-heart surgery and kidney transplantation.

Every two years an award is given to the most outstanding clinician in the field of pancreas transplantation.