Just heard - Christopher Lyles died March 5th

My deepest sympathy goes to Mr. Lyles' family for their loss. He was a true explorer as the second person in the world to receive a synthetic trachea. Here is the obituary I saw today, from  The Baltimore Sun:  
Christopher Lyles, Defense engineer
 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-christopher-lyles-20120309,0,7288440.story

I will forever be in the shadow of this great man. His sister says it all: "He put his life on the line so other people can live longer," his older sister, Erica Greene, said of the risk the surgery presented. "In the future there will be tracheal transplants [in the U.S]. But someone had to be the first do it."

More about what Mr. Lyles did, as covered by the media and linked through some of my earlier posts:
http://cheekylibrarian.blogspot.com/search?q=lyles