Raimund Margreiter

Raimund Margreiter, born on 16 May 1941 in Fügen in Tyrol, completed his studies at the Innsbruck Medical Faculty in a very short time and was awarded a doctorate in 1965. After two years in Salzburg, he returned to Innsbruck to take up an assistant position in surgery at the university hospital. In 1980 he completed his habilitation, and in 1997 the Medical Faculty of the Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck appointed him Head of the Clinical Department of General and Transplant Surgery. In 1999 he also became Chairman of the Board of the University Hospital for Surgery. After changing the organizational structure of the independent Medical University of Innsbruck, which was separated from the parent university, he became director of the now united University Clinic for Visceral, Transplant and Thoracic Surgery in 2002, which he headed until 2009.

Margreiter is Tyrol's most famous surgeon worldwide, as he has performed several organ transplants that were the first of their kind in the world and in Austria, and he is the only surgeon to have transplanted all solid organs. After the first kidney transplant in 1974, which Margreiter performed just two years after obtaining the title of specialist, the first liver transplant in Innsbruck three years later and Austria's first combined kidney and pancreas transplant in 1979 were successful. In 1983, Margreiter and Gschnitzer performed the first heart transplant in Austria and, together with other members of his well-established medical team, the world's first combined liver-kidney transplant. This was followed by numerous other impressive transplantations, such as the first heart-lung transplantation in Austria in 1985, the first double lung transplantation in 1987 and the world's first successful multivisceral transplantation in 1989 - another milestone that strengthened the reputation of Innsbruck surgery.  One year later, the first isolated intestinal transplant followed by the first islet cell transplantation was successful. In 2000, Theo Kelz's double hand transplantation caused an international sensation.

The surgeon Margreiter was and always has been a scientist with the conviction that successful transplantation is not possible without knowledge of the molecular and cell biological basics. "Medical care at the highest level is inconceivable in the long term without accompanying basic research," emphasizes research sponsor Margreiter, who, in addition to organ transplantation, also focused on tumor surgery and was also the honorary director of the Tyrolean Cancer Aid.

Thus, the Tyrolean Cancer Research Institute (TKFI) and the Daniel Swarovski Research Laboratory - two highly successful basic research institutions - are also closely connected with his name. In his younger years Raimund Margreiter was an enthusiastic adventurer. In 1970 he was involved in the rescue of Gert Judmair, who died in an accident on Mount Kenya, and in 1978 he took part in the successful Austrian Mount Everest expedition. Margreiter paddled solo in a kayak over 1,000 kilometres of the Amazon.

He has influenced whole generations of surgeons. The new, modern "Surgical School Innsbruck" is based on him. From his team 3 chairs have been filled: 2003 University of Tübingen [Königsrainer], 2009 Paracelsus Private University of Salzburg [Öfner-Velano] and 2015 Medical University of Innsbruck [Öfner-Velano] as well as numerous primaries: 2 times Hall in Tirol [Steiner, Mark], Zams [Sandbichler], Reutte [Unger], St.. Johann i.T. [Nehoda], 2 times Kufstein [Wiegele, Spechtenhauser], BHS Vienna [Klaus], BHB Salzburg [Weiss], Dornbirn [Zitt], LKH Klagenfurt [Mittermair].