XX. yüzyıl başında Sir Alex Carrel’in damar anastomozuyla organ transplantasyonu tarihi başladığı bilinir. Ancak 1275 tarihinde Jacobus de Voragine’in “Altin Efsaneler” kitabına göre MS III. yüzyılda Yumurtalık Asklepieionunda çalışan iki sağlıkçı Cosma ve Damian bir inanmışın ayağını yeni ölmüş bir zencinin ayağı ile değiştirmişlerdi. Bu olanaklı mıdır? Dönem Hıristiyanlığın yeni yayılmaya başladığı dönemdir; Hıristiyanlığın azizlere, azizlerin ise mucizelere gereksinimi vardır. İnsanları etkilemenin en etkili yollarından biri ise sağlıkla ilgili mucizelerdir. Bu iki azizin fıtık operasyonunun azizi olduğu bilindiğine göre olasılıkla cerrahi işlem sırasında bir hastanın damarları bağlanmış ve hastanın ayağının siyahlaşması üzerine bu efsane gündeme gelmiştir. Konu olarak seçilen “mucize”, resimler desteğinde irdelenecektir

The Golden Legend, a book of 1275 written by Jacobus de Voragine states that in third Century, Saints Cosma and Damian transplanted their churchmen’s leg with an Ethiopian’s who was black and passed away just before transplantation. İt is defined by Jacobus which was drawn from two epitomes one written by Jean de Mally’s lengthy Summary of the Deeds and Miracles of the Saints. The Saints Cosma and Damian lived in Aigai-Yumurtalık-Adana where they worked as the saints of Yumurtalık Asklepieion at the time, the public needed saints and saints needed miracles. Their inevitable search for a miracle had given them their most famous miraculous exploit, which was the grafting a leg from a recently died Ethiopians to replace a holy patient rotten leg, became the subject of many paintings and illuminations afterwards. However transplanted leg turned black, they used the usage of a black person’s leg as an excuse to cover up their fatal mistake during the transplantation which caused a circulatory disorder. When we look at the patron of these unmercenary physicians, we see that they were curing hernia. They should have tied A-V Femoralis in the end the white man leg became the ‘Ethiopian’s leg’. With our medical ethic understanding on transplantation today, we say that this is not a miracle, this is not transplantation, but should be considered as a malpractice