John Najarian
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John Sarkis Najarian (December 22, 1927 – September 1, 2020) was an American
transplant surgeon A transplant surgeon is a surgeon who performs organ transplants. Among the many organs that can be transplanted are: kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs, the pancreas, the intestine (especially the small intestine), and recently, faces, tracheal (wind ...
and clinical professor of transplant surgery at the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
. Najarian was a pioneer in thoracic transplant surgery.


Early life

Najarian was born in
Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
to Armenian immigrants. He studied medicine at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, where he was also an offensive tackle for the college's football team, and played in the
1949 Rose Bowl The 1949 Rose Bowl was the 35th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Saturday, January 1. The seventh-ranked Northwestern Wildcats of the Big Nine Conference defeated the #4 California ...
.


Career

After college, Najarian achieved success as a transplant surgeon, and soon joined the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
under Owen Wangensteen, whom he succeeded in 1967 as head of the surgical department. Then, he built a program where he was a leader at kidney, liver, pancreas and other transplants. Najarian was chairman of the department of surgery at the
University of Minnesota Medical School The University of Minnesota Medical School is a medical school at the University of Minnesota. It is a combination of three campuses located in Minneapolis, Duluth, and St. Cloud, Minnesota. The medical school has more than 17,000 alumni as of 2 ...
from 1967 until 1993. He was the author of nearly a thousand articles in the medical literature. He was a founding member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and served as its fourth president. His transplant surgery fellowship program trained many prominent transplant surgeons and included minority surgeons including Clive O. Callender, who founded the transplant program at
Howard University College of Medicine The Howard University College of Medicine (HUCM) is an academic division of Howard University that grants the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), Ph.D., M.S., and the M.PH. HUCM is located at the Howard University Health Sciences Center in Washington, D ...
. He did pioneering work in kidney transplantations in children during the 1970s, developing the anti-rejection drug
anti-lymphocyte globulin Anti-lymphocyte globulin (ALG) is an infusion of animal- antibodies against human T cells which is used in the treatment of acute rejection in organ transplantation. Its use was first reported by Thomas Starzl in 1966. Its use in transplant was su ...
, in pediatric liver transplantation and in xenotransplantation of porcine Islets for
Type I diabetes Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body's immune system destroys pancreatic cells (beta cells). In healthy persons, beta cells produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone required ...
. He'd also help patients with fragilities in which other doctors couldn't perform. He was the doctor that announced to the media the discovery of the inoperable tumor on Hubert Humphrey's pelvic bone in August 1977. One of Najarian's most famous medical operations was a liver transplant which occurred at the University of Minnesota in 1982, and had infant Jaime Fiske as his patient.


ALG controversy

In 1995, Najarian was indicted by the
Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...
(FDA) for illegally and improperly marketing and selling
anti-lymphocyte globulin Anti-lymphocyte globulin (ALG) is an infusion of animal- antibodies against human T cells which is used in the treatment of acute rejection in organ transplantation. Its use was first reported by Thomas Starzl in 1966. Its use in transplant was su ...
(ALG), an anti-rejection drug. Najarian was later acquitted of these charges, with the presiding judge and legal and medical experts questioning the motives and purposes of FDA prosecutors and regulators.


Personal life and death

Najarian was married to Mignette for 67 years. She died in 2019, the year before Najarian himself. They had four sons, 2 former
NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...
football players and
CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
market analysts and options trader
Jon Najarian Jon is a shortened form of the common given name Jonathan (name), Jonathan, derived from "Tetragrammaton, YHWH has given". The name is spelled Jón in Iceland and on the Faroe Islands. In the Nordic countries, it is derived from Johannes. Notabl ...
,
Pete Najarian Peter Michael Najarian is an American options trader, television personality, market analyst, and co-founder of options news and education firm optionMONSTER. Along with his brother, Jon Najarian, he founded an online brokerage called trad ...
, David, and Paul, who died in 2014 from ALS. Najarian died September 1, 2020, in
Stillwater, Minnesota Stillwater is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Washington County, Minnesota, Washington County. It is in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, on the west bank of the St. Croix River (Wisconsin-Minnesota), S ...
at the age of 92.


See also

*
Right-to-try law Right-to-try laws are United States state laws and a federal law created with the intent to allow Terminal illness, terminally ill patients access to Experimental drug, experimental therapies (drugs, biologics, devices) that have completed Phases o ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Najarian, John American transplant surgeons American people of Armenian descent University of Minnesota faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni 1927 births 2020 deaths People from Oakland, California Physicians from Minnesota