David Hull, MD, Transplant Surgeon, Hartford, Conecticut February 2013

Known for both his cutting-edge approach to medicine and a tireless devotion to patients, Dr. David Hull died Monday. He was 59.

Hull, who had been with of the Hartford Hospital Transplant Program for more than twenty years, died of complications of lymphoma.

"He would say that transplant represents all that was good and noble and generous in the human spirit," said Cathy Yavinsky, nurse director of transplant at Hartford Hospital. "His enthusiasm inspired all of us."

When he wasn't seeing patients, he was often raising awareness about organ donations, working with such organizations as American Liver Foundation and the National Kidney Foundation.

Hull, who lived in West Hartford, attended medical school at the University of Florida and completed his surgical residency at Boston University Affiliated Hospitals. After graduating from Tufts University Medical Center Transplant Fellowship Program, he began his work in transplantation and general surgery at Hartford Hospital in 1987. In 1998, he was appointed director of the hospital's clinical transplantation department.

As a surgeon, he kept up with the latest innovations and authored more than 70 papers for medical journals. Hartford Hospital officials said Hull performed the first laparoscopic living-kidney-donor surgery in New England in 1996.

But he was also known for his personal approach to medicine, calling patients at home to see how their recovery was going.

"When they found a donor for me, it was on his day off - and he never gets a day off. He came in anyway," said Tom Dempsey, of Hebron, who was patient of Hull's when he received a liver transplant in 1996. "He wasn't just a mechanical surgeon; he got deeply involved, yet he was so evenly keeled."

Hartford Courant | William Weir