Dr. Susan Hou 1st U.S. MD to Donate Kidney to Unrelated Patient

Dr. Susan Hou, medical director of the renal transplant program at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, IL, has become the first known American physician to donate a kidney to an unrelated patient.

Hou, 56, donated the kidney to Hermelinda Gutierrez, 33, who at 4-foot-7 and 93 pounds was a slightly smaller woman than her physician.

"I thought, 'If this kidney is big enough for me, it's big enough for her,'" said Hou, whose act of generosity was recounted this week in People magazine.

Hou said she had dreamed for 30 years of becoming an organ donor.

"Some people just have a donor chip in their brains," she said. "I can't bring about world peace or eliminate hunger, but I could fix this problem."

"She always said that the only reason you have two kidneys is to give one away," added her husband, Dr. Mark Molitch.

Other sources: Loyola University, People