Christiaan Barnard

CHRISTIAAN BARNARD d2001. South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation. On 3rd December 1967, he transplanted the heart of accident-victim Denise Darvall into the chest of 54-year-old Louis Washkansky. Washkansky regained full consciousness and was able to talk easily with his wife (before dying eighteen days later of pneumonia) largely brought on by the anti-rejection drugs that suppressed his immune system. Barnard had told Mr and Mrs Washkansky that the operation had an 80% chance of success, an assessment that was later criticised as misleading. His second transplant was performed at the beginning of 1968. His patient lived for a year and a half and was able to go home from the hospital. He retired as head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Cape Town in 1983 after the arthritis in his hands ended his surgical career. He later became interested in anti-aging research. During his remaining years, he established the Christiaan Barnard Foundation, dedicated to helping underprivileged children throughout the world. He died in 2001 at the age of 78 after an asthma attack