In 1963, Thomas Starzl performed the first human transplant of what part of the body?

Thomas Earl Starzl is an American physician, researcher, and is an expert on organ transplants. He performed the first human liver transplants, and has often been referred to as "the father of modern transplantation."

Starzl was born on March 11, 1926, in Le Mars, Iowa, the son of newspaper editor and science fiction writer Roman Frederick Starzl and Anna Laura Fitzgerald who was a teacher and a nurse. He is the second of four siblings. Originally intending to become a priest in his teenage years, Starzl's plans changed drastically when his mother died from breast cancer in 1947.

One of Starzl's most notable accomplishments was performing the first human liver transplant in 1963. Unfortunately the first patient bled to death during the operation. Starzl also performed the first successful liver transplant in 1967. Both transplants took place at the University of Colorado. Dr. Starzl and his transplant team went on to perform approximately 200 liver transplants at Colorado General and Denver Veterans Administration hospitals.