From transplanted corneas to a baboon heart—and now faces

Doctors have been attempting organ transplants for centuries; ancient Sanskrit texts refer to Indian doctors performing skin grafts as far back as 3000 B.C., and doctors transplanted canine-skull parts into human heads in medieval times. Corneas, in 1905, were the first successful organ transplants; today, doctors are able to replace faces. Now the main hurdle is not in the operating room, but in the real world. Even as surgical technique gets better, it's still an uphill battle to keep the body from rejecting new organs. In the last decade, researchers have come closer to inducing immune-system tolerance of new body parts, and patients are having more success staying healthy with their transplants. A look at some of the more miraculous moments in the last hundred years of transplant history:

 
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