Korea's pioneer liver transplant surgeon dies at 95

Kim Soo-tae, a professor emeritus at Seoul National University Hospital who performed Korea’s first successful liver transplant, died Tuesday. He was 95.

Born in Muan, South Jeolla Province, Kim graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine in 1952.

While conducting cancer research at Johns Hopkins University in the United States in the 1960s, he was inspired by the idea that if an organ could not be cured, it could be replaced with a healthy one. This idea led him to specialize in organ transplantation, a path that had not been pursued by Korean doctors at the time.

A surgical team at Seoul National University Hospital performed the nation’s first liver transplant under Kim's leadership in March 1988. The team transplanted the liver of a 14-year-old boy, who had been declared clinically deceased due to a brain tumor, into a 14-year-old girl suffering from cirrhosis caused by Wilson’s disease, a rare genetic disorder.

The procedure marked a major breakthrough in Korea’s medical history.

At the time, no laws existed permitting organ donation from brain-dead patients, meaning doctors risked legal consequences for performing such surgeries. Despite this, Kim went ahead with the procedure to save the patient, according to his colleagues.

With Korea severely lacking medical equipment for organ transplantation at the time, Kim had to design his own surgical tools based on those he had seen in the U.S.

Following the surgery's success, the Korean Medical Association in 1989 recommended the legalization of organ donation from brain-dead individuals, which eventually led to the enactment of related legislation in 2000.

The veteran surgeon performed 17 liver transplants throughout his medical career.

Reflecting on his pioneering work at a 30th-anniversary event in 2018, Kim said, "Despite the poor conditions at the time, the determination to succeed was the key to our success."