He’s a Legendary Transplant Surgeon. At 88, His Work Isn’t Done

By Anissa Durham

This article is part of “On Borrowed Time” a series by Anissa Durham that examines the people, policies, and systems that hurt or help Black patients in need of an organ transplant. Read part one, two, and three.

(WIB) – It’s the 1960s. Inside a patient’s hospital room, cardiac monitors beep softly in the dark. The faint rise and fall of a chest. The hum of machines. There are no cell phones or call buttons. The floor is hard, cold to the touch — not the kind of place you’d want to sleep.

On many nights, it’s where Dr. Clive O. Callender, then a young chief resident at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., lays his head for a nap. Every few hours, he wakes to check on a patient who has just received a new kidney or liver.

It was an unconventional approach, but Dr. C