Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth Marks 40th Anniversary Of Its First Living Kidney Transplant

Fort Worth Hospital Marks 40 Years Since County’s First kidney transplant, Recipient Thrives

USA: Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth celebrated a milestone this week marking four decades since the county’s first kidney transplant, a landmark 1986 operation in which one sister donated a kidney to another. That surgery officially launched the hospital’s kidney transplant program and set a new course for renal care in Tarrant County.

The donor, Carolyn Novotny, reunited with the surgeon who performed that pioneering operation and with recipient Marilyn Patterson as hospital staff and community members recognized the anniversary. Patterson, now 76 and a grandmother of seven, continues to live with the same donated kidney, a rare demonstration of long-term success in kidney transplantation.

Hospital leaders used the reunion to highlight both individual and program-level achievements: the durability of this particular transplant and the growth of transplantation services offered in Fort Worth since 1986. The celebration underscored how living donation and surgical advances have expanded options for people facing kidney failure.

As the transplant program looks to the future, the reunion and Patterson’s sustained health serve as tangible proof of the life-changing potential of living donation and transplantation. For patients and families in Tarrant County, the anniversary was both a commemoration and a reminder of the ongoing need for donors and broader support for transplant care.

Video originally published on 2026-06-03 12:58:34