Dr. Susan Hou

Our founder

Dr. Susan Hou

Susan Hou was a kidney specialist, researcher, organ donor, and co-founder of the clinic in Palacios.

Susan trained at Tufts and studied kidney disease and pregnancy. Her work helped physicians understand how to care for women with kidney disease who wanted to have children. She also co-authored research on living kidney donation.

In 1996, Susan helped arrange a living-donor liver transplant for Indira, a five-year-old girl from Bolivia. She and her husband, Mark Molitch, spent years traveling to Bolivia and working with Douglas Villarroel. On September 14, 2001, the three physicians co-founded the clinic in Palacios.

In 2002, Susan donated a kidney to a patient she was not related to. Six colleagues at Loyola later became donors as well. They became known as the “Seven Sisters” of organ donation.

On October 10, 2014, exactly twelve years after donating a kidney, Susan received a lung transplant. She had been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2010. When her transplant medicines later damaged her kidney, her son Ethan donated one of his to her in 2017.

Susan died in 2019 at age 72. The clinic was later renamed Centro Médico Susan Hou in her honor.

Susan Hou

Her life and work

1982
Helps bring Dadi to the United States for kidney transplant care.
1986
Co-authors research on living kidney donation.
1996
Helps arrange a liver transplant for Indira, a five-year-old girl from Bolivia.
2001
Co-founds the clinic in Palacios with Douglas Villarroel and Mark Molitch.
2002
Donates a kidney to an unrelated patient.
2014
Receives a lung transplant on the anniversary of her kidney donation.
2017
Receives a kidney from her son Ethan.
2019
Dies at age 72. The clinic is later renamed in her honor.
Susan’s memorial tree at the clinic in Palacios
A memorial tree at the clinic in Palacios. Susan’s ashes were buried with its roots.