The First Heart Transplant 

Here's another weird but true story from West Virginia:
In 1968, West Virginia made history with the first heart transplant in the United States performed on a human who survived for any significant length of time. The surgery took place at Morgantown's West Virginia University Medical Center.
The patient was John Russell, a 54-year-old retired miner from Clarksburg. Dr. Nazih Zuhdi led the surgical team that performed this groundbreaking operation. Russell received the heart of a 36-year-old man who had died in a car accident.
What makes this case particularly notable is that Russell survived for 110 days after the transplant. While this may not seem long by today's standards, it was a significant achievement at the time. Previous attempts at heart transplants in the U.S. had resulted in patients dying within days or even hours.
Russell's relatively long survival provided valuable data for future heart transplants and helped pave the way for advancements in the field. His case demonstrated that heart transplants could be viable and gave hope to patients with severe heart conditions.
This medical milestone put West Virginia in the spotlight of the medical world and contributed significantly to the development of transplant procedures that have since saved countless lives.