With sadness we received the message that Professor Guy Alexandre has passed away on February 14 at the age of 89. Guy Alexandre was one of the pioneers of transplantation and closely involved in the foundation of Eurotransplant. After performing innovative studies on experimental transplantation in dogs, Guy Alexandre was from the very beginning a dedicated and active collaborator with Eurotransplant. Already in the first manual of Eurotransplant in 1968 his center, the Clinique Universitaire St. Pierre in Louvain, Belgium, was indicated as BLA (Belgium Louvain Alexandre) and it is still the identification of this transplant center at ET. Prof Alexandre was the first surgeon who introduced the concept of organ transplantation from patients after “coma dépassé”. This was 5 years before the concept of irreversible coma defining death by neurologic criteria (brain-death) was accepted by the Harvard Committee.
Next to his excellent clinical expertise, Guy Alexandre was one of the initiators of ABO incompatible transplants. Already in 1985, he published strategies to perform ABO incompatible renal transplantations showing once more his innovative vision. As a follow up of these studies, he continued research in the field of xenotransplantation after his retirement. The Eurotransplant community would like to thank Professor Alexandre for his continuous support and wishes his family all strength with this great loss.
