Dr. John Najarian, a pioneer in organ transplantation surgery and a prominent department head at the University of Minnesota, died Monday in Stillwater at the age of 92.
Described as “bigger than life,” the 6-foot, 3-inch tall, 250-pound man with a size 15 shoe who once played offensive tackle for the University of California in the 1949 Rose Bowl, was best known for his delicate transplant surgeries on children.
“He was courageous in his pursuit to advance medicine,” said Dr. Sayeed Ikramuddin and Dr. William Payne of the U’s surgery department in a joint statement. “Wanting to provide solutions for the most complex medical situations, he worked to tackle them head-on. Because of Dr. Najarian’s commitment to patient care, those who had little hope for survival went on to lead long, healthy lives.”
Born in Oakland, Calif., in 1927 to Armenian immigrants, Najarian became interested in medicine after losing his father to the flu. He studied medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and served as a heart surgeon in the U.S. Air Force.
It was there that he became interested in transplant surgery.
“This was the thing that drove me the most,” he said in a recorded interview for the U. “To find a way that we could in fact transplant organs from one individual to another. Wouldn’t this be wonderful if we could do it.”
In 1967, he was recruited to lead the U Medical School’s department of surgery as its chair, a position he held until 1993. He was the author of hundreds of articles in medical literature, trained doctors from all over the world and was a founding member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.
Najarian built on early achievements in transplant research and surgery that began during Dr. Owen Wangensteen’s tenure, turning the U into a national organ transplant leader.
One of his most notable cases was Jamie Fiske, an 11-month-old Massachusetts girl born with biliary atresia, which caused her liver to develop abnormally. Fiske’s father made an impassioned plea on television for a donor and one came forward. Najarian performed the surgery successfully in 1982.
The publicity surrounding her case raised awareness of the plight facing the growing number of patients in need of donated organs. This led to national legislation establishing an organ donation and transplant system.
On Tuesday, Najarian’s son Peter wrote on Twitter that his father had died. The announcement from the CNBC stock market analyst was answered by scores of well-wishers, many whose lives had been changed because of Najarian’s work.
“If it wasn’t for what he built at the U, you wouldn’t be talking to me now,” said Steve Campen, 51, of Rosemount. Campen was near death at age 27 when he got his first kidney transplant. Najarian was his doctor.
“What struck me about him more than anything else was, here’s this guy with a physical presence with very large hands and you thought, how can he be a surgeon?” Campen said. “He exhibited a confidence without arrogance that told you that you’ve got this and you will be fine. Because of what he did for me, I’ve been able to experience so much in life, traveling to parts of the world I never thought I’d see, meeting my wife, becoming a father of two children — and none of that would have existed without him.”
One aspect of Najarian’s research that advanced the success of transplants was his work on anti-lymphocyte globulin (ALG), an anti-rejection drug.
“We taught people that you could successfully transplant one individual to another, once you knew what the key was, and the key was basically to decrease their immune response to the recipient,” he said.
Najarian’s legacy was somewhat tainted by scandal in 1992 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered the University of Minnesota to halt all sales of ALG. A federal investigation followed, alleging that the university violated federal drug-testing rules and profited from its sales.
The investigation cost Najarian his position at the U and wouldn’t be resolved for four years. In 1996, he was acquitted of all charges by a jury that determined the FDA failed to prove its case.
Najarian was married to his wife, Mignette, for 67 years. He had four sons, Jon, Dave, Paul, and Peter, who also played football at the University of Minnesota and in the NFL.
“Dad will be missed by not just his family, but by so many,” Peter Najarian said. “(He was) a giant in stature as well as in his field of medicine.”
