The American Innovation $1 Coin representing Mississippi honors the first human lung transplant. On June 11, 1963, Dr. James D. Hardy and his collaborators, Watts R. Webb, Martin L. Dalton, Jr., and George R. Walker, Jr., at the University of Mississippi Medical Center performed the world’s first human lung transplant.
Following the transplant, the patient lived for almost three weeks before succumbing to renal failure. The achievement, however, was undeniable. Dr. Hardy’s initial procedure opened the way for exciting developments in human lung transplantation, and began a new era of therapy for lung disease in humans.
