THEN
Established in 1968, The Living Bank served as the nations’ first organ donor registry and the first provider of organ donation and transplantation education in the United States. Physicians around the world were beginning to understand that transplantation of human organs was a life-saving medical procedure for many types of organ failure.
Inspired by famed heart surgeon Denton Cooley, five Houston women, realizing no formal way to donate organs existed, saw a need for a donor registry that would allow medical professionals to match organs with those who needed a second chance at life.