On Jan. 15, 1967, William Lakey performed Alberta’s first organ transplant, a kidney, at the University of Alberta Hospital (UAH). The patient lived for two months.

Since then, more than 2,800 kidney transplants have been performed at the UAH and the outcomes and life expectancy for transplants patients have significantly improved. Today, 95 per cent of patients in the local renal transplant program survive at least five years.