The Dark Early Years of Heart Transplantation: Some Lessons Learned

Christiaan Barnard's first human heart transplant in Cape Town on 3rd December 1967 stunned the world and surprised the medical profession.1 This was followed three days later by Kantrowitz in New York who transplanted a 17 day old baby with a 2 day old donor heart. The infant died six hours later. Barnard's first recipient, Washkansky, died after 18 days but on 2nd January 1968 he performed a second transplant on Philip Blaiberg, a 58 year old dentist, who lived for 20 months. During this time Blaiberg published an interesting account of his experiences with the title "Looking at my Heart".

Source: The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation - October 20, 2017 Category: Transplant Surgery Authors: Sir Terence English Source Type: research