10 Interesting Facts about the First Heart transplant

Doctors in surgery by Akram Huseyn/Unsplash

10 Interesting Facts about the First Heart transplant

Fifty-three-year-old Louise Washkansky received his first heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town South Africa. Christian Barnard was the first doctor who performed the first human heart transplant. Barnard studied medicine at the University of Cape Town and pursued further heart training in the U.S., he employed transplant techniques by American researchers. This surgery made history and there was bizarre media coverage, it was the world’s most widely reported medical event. Apart from the media coverage, the first heart-to-heart transplant had great political importance.

In 1970 there was a development of better anti-rejection drugs that made transplants more viable, Dr. Barnard continued to perform heart surgery operations and many of his patients lived up to five years and more with the new hearts. Today more than over thirty thousand heart transplants have been performed in the United States, and have been successful. Washkansky a South African grocer was dying from chronic heart disease, he received a heart transplant from Denis Daryall a twenty-five-year-old woman who had a fatal brain injury in a car accident. The surgery happened in 1967, Washkansky later died eighteen days later after suffering from pneumonia.

1. Groote Schuur Hospital where the first heart transplant happened

Old Main Building of Groote Schuur Hospital by Danie Van/ Wikimedia Commons

This is one of South Africa’s premier hospitals, located in the Observatory just a few minutes from the main University of Cape Town. The Groote Schuur Hospital is internationally known as the training ground for some of the best in South Africa doctors surgeons and nurses. The Hospital gained global fame in 1967 when the young UCT surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard did his first world successful heart transplant on Louise Washkansky. The hospital presently houses several clinical academic departments and it also hosts the heart of Cape Town Museum. The museum is dedicated to major medical events over the years, and its successful implementation saved tens of thousands of patients’ lives around the world.

The mission of the hospital is to remain the beacon of excellent service by striving to develop leaders who build a culture of continuous improvement. The clinical Research Site at the old Main Building of the hospital is a nationally accredited site that forms part of the University. The CRS was the first clinic to offer life-saving antiretroviral therapy to public sector patients through clinical trial drugs in 1990 when treatment was unaffordable. Well before he became a renowned heart surgeon, he performed heart surgery on 200 dogs as part of his research.

2. Louis Joshua Washkansky recipient of the heart transplant

Louis Joshua Washkansky was a South African man who was the first recipient of the World’s first human-to-human heart transplant. He was known as a fun-loving, hard-drinking athletic man, he was born in 1914 in Kovno today known as Kaunas Lithuania. When he was nine years his mother took the family to join their father in Cape town to their new home. As he grew older after the war he opened a grocery in the city’s garden neighborhood, and he was a member of the Maccabi Wrestling Club and Gym.

He was an addictive smoker, Washkansky enlisted in the South African Engineering Corps to see the action in Africa and Italy in 1940. He married Anne Sklar also a child immigrant to South Africa from Lithuania. He was diabetic and by 1960 he experience three heart attacks, in 1967 his condition had deteriorated to the point of death. He became a good candidate to undergo the first human transplant, he accepted the idea. He got the transplant but died 18 days later after getting pneumonia.

3. The success of the first Heart transplant

The first human organ to be successfully transplanted was the Kidney in 1954, the first heart transplant failed in 1905. In the early years there was a controversy over transplants there were still questions of ethics regarding when should one consider someone dead when the heart is beating or not. The first heart transplant was a success although Washkansky died 18 days later, four of the ten first heart transplant patients at Groote Schuur Hospitals survived for more than one year two living for 13 and 23 years. South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard had prepared himself for this day by performing experimental heart surgery on dogs, he led a team of thirty surgical members during the heart transplant on Louis Washkansky who was suffering from diabetes.

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4. Christiaan Neethling Barnard the doctor who performed the first heart transplant

Dr. Chris Barnard by Ron Kroon/Wikimedia Commons

The doctor who made history in the world by performing the first human-to-human heart transplant at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. He is the son of a missionary born in 1922 in Beaufort West on the edge of South Africa at the Great Karoo. He was one of four sons, one of who died at a young age due to a heart problem. He did well at school he studied medicine at the University of Cape town, he went to Minnesota University to study cardiothoracic surgery and after attaining his MSc and Ph.D. he returned to Cape Town. He was appointed lecturer and director of surgical research under professor J H Louw at Groot Hospital. Barnard was responsible for introducing cardiopulmonary bypass known as open heart surgery.

In 1960 he went to the Soviet Union to study transplant techniques of hearts and heads on dogs. He was later appointed head of the cardiothoracic surgery department at the teaching hospital of the University of Cape Town. After his first human-to-human transplant, the next year he performed his first kidney transplant at the Groote Schuur Hospital. His second heart transplant was in 1968 on Dr. Philip Blaaiberg who became a national hero, he traveled widely giving lectures and interviews. He was married three times and divorced three times; he was proposed for the 1968 Nobel Prize but he did not win it. Dr. Barnard died in 2001 from a severe asthma attack while on holiday in Cyprus Greece.

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5. There was huge media coverage for the first heart transplant

Media by Share Grid/Unsplash

There was huge media coverage around the world when Christiaan Barnard performed his first heart transplant. This major event was on the front pages and appeared daily for weeks and months describing every detail and aspect. The media did not only show the details of the operation but also the outcome of the patient after the surgery. The operation captured the public’s imagination and there was a lot of response towards Chris Barnard’s youthful good looks and charismatic personality. Barnard’s name and the Groote Schuur Hospital made history after the first heart transplant.

6. The first heart transplant took nine hours

Surgery by Piron Guilaume/Unsplash

South African doctor Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant. This extraordinary event pushed the boundaries of science into the dawn of the new medical era of today’s world. After a decade of practicing heart surgery, Dr. Barnard with his cardiothoracic team of thirty performed the nine-hour-long operation. The first heart transplant could not have been achieved without the skill and support of a large team. The original theatre where this transplant was performed has been turned into a museum in honor of the pioneers of medicine and the first donor and recipient. The transplant oversaw so many medical ethics at the time were not put in place.

7. Christiaan Barnard’s team consisted of his brother Marius

Marius Barnard by Eric Koch/Wikimedia Commons

Marius Stephanus Barnard was a member of the team headed by his brother Christiaan Barnard that performed the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant. . Dr. Barnard was a renowned cardiac surgeon who was motivated by the financial hardship he saw in his patients and initiated South African Insurance companies to introduce the critical illness cover. In 1987 he launched the critical illness plan in England, today more than 70 U.K insurance companies sell critical illness policies. Dr. Barnard was also a member of the South African parliament between 1980 and 1989, for the Progressive Federal Party which opposed apartheid.

8. How long did the first patient live after the heart transplant

South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard led a team thirty-surgical team to perform the first heart transplant on Louis Washkansky. Washkansky received the heart from Denise Daryall a 25-year-old bank clerk who was left brain dead following an automobile accident. After the surgery, Washkansky was given drugs to suppress his immune system and keep his body from rejecting the heart. The drugs left him vulnerable to sickness he acquired pneumonia and passed on after 18 days. Despite his death, his heart functioned normally until his death. Dr. Barnard continued to execute heart transplant operations, and by the late 1970s, many of his patients were living up to five years with their new hearts.

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9. Denis Darvall was the first donor of a human transplant

Denis Darvall made history in the world when she became the World’s first donor of a successful human heart transplant performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard. Earlier that day she got into a serious car injury in Cape town that left her mother dead, she had multiple injuries including a skull fracture that left her brain dead. Her father gave permission for his daughter to donate her organs and Denise’s heart went to a heart transplant recipient Louis Washkansky and her kidney went to a 10-year-old Jonathan Van Wyk.

10. Evolution of heart transplant

Today they are many heart transplants that take place all over the world, When Barnard performed his first heart transplant, he did not stop there he performed various heart transplants later in life. After decades of clinical and animal-based research, the first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard in South Africa. The most fascinating aspect of heart transplants is not their occurrence but their years of advancement with scientific experiments and surgical techniques.

The human anatomy is better understood today, the heart is an organ like no other, today new approaches to heart transplant are been researched, and today they are artificial hearts because of the rising number of patients who require heart transplants. The benefit of this device is an increased life span and hopefully will reduce the number of patients waiting for a heart through donors.

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