You are now 50 years old. You didn't take care of your body as well as you thought and now you have to undergo hundreds of tests to see if you can get that new organ you need. Would your chances of survival be good if you needed a transplant in the 1800s? And the present time? Do you have a chance to live a long life? Does the future really look brighter for transplants? You will learn about your chances of a successful transplant both in the past, present and future. What is the history of transplants? No one knows exactly how long people have been transplanting tissue, but some of the earliest information we have dates back to the 1500s. The first thing in the medical record was about a doctor named Tagliacozzi who helped soldiers who had lost their noses in battle. The technique of letting tissue from the arm connect and grow over the nose quickly spread throughout Europe. Then, in 1616, the British doctor William Harvey took the first steps towards blood transfusions. He proved that blood flows through the body through veins and arteries. It took until 1818 for James Blundell to inform everyone that the use of animal blood in transfusions was fatal (Wouk 12). The blood transfusions continued despite the mysteries behind it all. While doctors were baffled by transplanting blood from one person to another, others continued to move forward. In 1869 the first skin transplant took place. Then, in 1906, they performed the first corneal transfer. Once everyone discovered that certain moving body parts worked, they moved on to moving organs. The first successful kidney transplant occurred in 1954 and occurred between identical twins. Later, in 1959, doctors completed another kidney transplant, once again twins, but this time they were not identical... middle of the paper... if you paid attention, you would know that most people don't have Done. live long after a transplant between the 17th and early 20th centuries. Your chances of surviving a transplant increased in the 1950s, but you'd be even luckier if you got a transplant today in the 21st century. The probability of survival in the future is even better! Once you clearly understand stem cell research, your chances of living a long life after a transplant are approximately 100%! Works Cited Frieson, Tommy. “Timeline of Historical Events, Significant Milestones in Organ Donation and Transplantation.” US Department of Health and Human Services. Health Resources and Services Administration, 2009. Web. March 4, 2014. .Wouk, Henry. Organ transplants. Ed. Megan Comerford, Joyce Stanton and Christine Florie. New York: Cavendish Square, nd Print.