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Giving of ourselves, literally

Pamela Paulk, right, donated a kidney as
part of a domino transplant. As a result of the donation, Robert Imes, left,
received a healthy kidney this summer.

Dr. Robert Montgomery had what some might have called a crazy idea - an ambitiously audacious idea, actually -- to orchestrate the largest domino kidney transplant to date.

A domino transplant - the harvesting and transplanting of multiple organs for multiple patients - is a complex high-wire act that makes the life-enhancing procedure available to more patients.

In a coordinated series of operations, eight donors and eight recipients, stretched halfway across the country from Baltimore to Detroit to Oklahoma City, made history and a difference.

Dr. Montgomery, a professor at the School of Medicine and chief of the Transplant Division at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, coordinated the domino transplants from Baltimore.

When Pamela Paulk, the vice president for human resources for The Johns Hopkins Hospital, heard of Dr. Montgomery's plans, she decided she had to be part of the history-making operation, by becoming a kidney donor because a co-worker's health was depending on it. Painter Robert Imes was in dire need of a kidney transplant.

Thanks to Dr. Montgomery's vision and the generosity of Paulk and other donors, Imes and seven others received a healthy kidney in June 2009.

The very same surgeons who are making history in the operating room are also training the next generation of lifesavers at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Students at the Johns Hopkins University are among the best in the world. In turn, they are instructed by the best in their field, such as Robert Montgomery, who teaches and mentors aspiring surgeons.

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