Johnson Blazes Trail in Transplant Surgery

By Deb Hanson

Lynt Johnson lives by the power of the 3 D's: determination, discipline and drive. It shows. Johnson has blazed a trail for fellow African American health professionals involved in liver transplant surgery.

In 1991, at the age of 31, Johnson and his Harvard Medical School roommate, Ed Barksdale, broke ground by becoming the first African Americans to head the general surgical residents at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital. After completing residency in general surgery at Massachusetts General in 1991 and serving on the hospital staff for one year, Johnson began his fellowship program at Boston's New England Deaconess Hospital, where he performed 60 liver transplants during his training.

In 1995, the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) appointed Johnson as assistant professor and director of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery. It was there that he and his colleagues build the region's leading liver transplantation program and helped to establish UMMC as a highly respected center for multidisciplinary treatment of the full spectrum of liver disease.

 "I was always fascinated with the human body," says Johnson, who holds his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Duke University. "However, my grandmother's death from liver cancer when I was a young boy had a profound impact on me and may have led me to focus my interest in liver transplantation and liver cancer surgery. Transplantation has such a tremendous impact on the quality of life of an individual that I found no other area in medicine quite as challenging and rewarding."

The middle child in a family of five, Johnson grew up in Savannah, Georgia. Johnson credits much of his success to his family and hometown neighbors who were concerned about what he did and stood behind him. He attended the Science Enrichment Preparation (SEP) Program in 1980, and then went on to graduate from Harvard Medical School. He is a testament to hard work and dedication."In this country, black kids in particular are shown that the way to success in life is to become an athlete or entertainer, but that's a disservice to us," says Johnson. "Their aspirations should be wide open."

Johnson's success hasn't come easy though. "I have had a number of challenges along the way, particularly from instructors who would be condescending and ridicule my efforts to always be the best," he says. "This only served to strengthen my will. Another example: After I had accepted the job as head of the liver transplant program in Maryland, I was told by the certifying body that despite all my previous training, I was required to perform an additional six months of training at my own expense. We went on to build one of the best transplant programs in the country at the University of Maryland."

Today Johnson is nationally recognized for his work in transplant medicine. He currently serves as Chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery at Georgetown University Medical Center. He is also passing on his knowledge to the next generation as a professor of surgery at Georgetown University School of Medicine.

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