In 1989, Shimane University professor emeritus and physician Naofumi Nagasue, who was the first in Japan to perform living donor liver transplantation in which part of a healthy person's liver was transplanted to a child with severe liver disease, passed away at what was then Shimane Medical University. I did. He was 81 years old.
Mr. Nagasue, who was born in Fukuoka Prefecture, graduated from Kyushu University School of Medicine and then studied abroad in Sweden. After returning to Japan, he became an assistant professor at what was then Shimane Medical University.
In November 1989, a part of his father's liver was transplanted into a 1-year-old boy who could have died at any time due to a serious liver disease called "congenital biliary atresia," the first living liver in Japan. I did a transplant.
At one point, the boy recovered enough to be transferred to a general ward, but then his health deteriorated and he died 285 days after the surgery.
This surgery, which was only the fourth in the world, marked a turning point in transplant medicine in Japan, and is now indispensable, with around 400 liver transplants being performed each year, including organ donations from brain-dead patients, and more than 10,000 liver transplants in total. It has taken root as a form of medical care.
On the other hand, living donor liver transplantation, which would harm the body of a healthy person, was a big debate from an ethical standpoint at the time, and liver transplants have not been performed at Shimane University since then, but this year they will restart for the first time in 35 years. Preparations are underway for this purpose.
Mr. Nagasue served as professor at Shimane Medical University and dean of medicine at Shimane University after the merger, and was made professor emeritus in 2008.
After that, he served as the director of a hospital in Fukuoka Prefecture, where he was conducting medical examinations until last year.
According to people involved, Nagasue passed away on the 11th.
He was 81 years old.