Dr. Nancy Ascher, General Surgery Chief Resident Alumna & Past Clinical Director of the Liver Transplant Program ('82)
Dr. Nancy Ascher - a pioneer in organ transplantation and the first woman in the world to perform a liver transplant. On November 5, 1982, Dr. Ascher assisted former Department of Surgery Chair Dr. John Najarian in performing a successful liver transplant for Jamie Fiske, who received a deceased donor liver at the University of Minnesota when she was only 11 months old. Dr. Ascher then joined the faculty of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1982 and was named Clinical Director of the Liver Transplant Program. Jamie Fiske's successful operation and her father's subsequent testimony before Congress helped pass the National Organ Transplant Act, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.
(Pictured: Dr. Nancy Ascher holds 11-month-old liver transplant patient Jamie Fiske, and featured left is Drs. Ascher and Najarian performing in the O.R.)