AUGUSTA, Maine — A man who donated a kidney to his dying twin brother 56 years ago in what’s recognized as the world’s first successful organ transplant has died.

Ronald Lee Herrick died Monday at the Augusta Rehabilitation Center in Maine. He was 79. His wife, Cynthia, said his health deteriorated after undergoing heart surgery in October.

Herrick donated a kidney to his twin brother, Richard, at what is now Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Because they were identical twins, there was no problem with rejection. The United Network for Organ Sharing says it was the first successful organ transplant.

The operation on Dec. 23, 1954, kept Herrick’s brother alive for eight years. Lead surgeon Dr. Joseph Murray went on to win a Nobel Prize.