100-Year-Old Man Becomes the US' Oldest Organ Donor

A Nebraska rancher who once guarded Nazi war criminals is in the record books nearly 80 years later, reports the Guardian. Dale Steele, a 100-year-old World War II veteran who died in February after a head injury, is believed to be the oldest organ donor in US history, according to organ-procurement group Live On Nebraska. Steele's liver was recovered at Nebraska Medicine—Nebraska Medical Center and successfully transplanted the next day, giving "new life to a grateful recipient," the organization said. "Mr. Steele ... is a powerful reminder that generosity has no age limit," said Live On Nebraska CEO Kyle Herber.

Steele's story undercuts a common assumption about age and organ donation. When doctors asked his family to donate his liver, his son Roger's first reaction was: "He's over 100 years old." But Live On Nebraska's chief medical officer, Dr. Lee Morrow, told KMTV that a healthy liver essentially renews itself over time. "Your liver is about three years old; my liver is about three years old; and that 100-year-old ... his liver [is] about three years old," Morrow said, adding that newer techniques such as warm blood perfusion are helping expand the pool of viable organs from older donors. Roger Steele told Military.com that his father "came from an age when people worked very hard, and I think that's a substitute for fitness as we define it today."

Steele's life spanned some of the darkest chapters of the 20th century. Drafted after high school, he served in France, Germany, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia near the end of World War II, helping track down remaining Nazi forces and assisting concentration camp survivors returning home. He was later promoted to staff sergeant and assigned to guard prisoners at the Nuremberg trials, including Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler's onetime deputy.