Christiaan Barnard

Christiaan Neethling Barnard was a South African cardiac surgeon who did something very important. He did the first ever human-to-human heart transplant.

On 3 December 1967, Barnard took the heart of a person named Denise Darvall and put it into another person, Louis Washkansky, who was 54 years old. After the surgery, Washkansky could talk easily with his wife. But sadly, he died 18 days later from an illness caused by medicines.

Barnard was born in Beaufort West, Cape Province. He studied medicine and became a surgeon. Early in his work, he helped save ten babies in Cape Town who had a problem with their intestines. He also worked in the United States and learned about new machines that helped with heart operations.

Barnard stopped doing surgery in 1983 because his hands were having health problems. After that, he studied aging and started the Christiaan Barnard Foundation to help children in need around the world. He died in 2001 at the age of 78 after having breathing difficulties.

Early life

Christiaan Barnard was born on November 8, 1922, in Beaufort West, Cape Province, in what was then the Union of South Africa. His father, Adam Barnard, was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. One of his brothers, Abraham, passed away as a baby. Barnard finished school at Beaufort West High School in 1940 and later studied medicine at the University of Cape Town Medical School, where he earned his medical degree in 1945.

Career

Christiaan Barnard trained as a doctor at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town and later worked in a small town called Ceres in the Cape Province. He returned to Cape Town in 1951 and studied medicine further.

Barnard did important research on animals to learn more about health problems in the intestines. His work helped save many babies. He also studied heart surgery in the United States. When he returned to South Africa, he became a leader in heart surgery and made many important discoveries.

Historical context

After the first successful kidney transplant in 1953, Barnard did South Africa's second kidney transplant in October 1967. The first kidney transplant in South Africa happened in Johannesburg the year before.

On 23 January 1964, James Hardy at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, did the world’s first heart transplant by putting a chimpanzee’s heart into a very sick man. The heart beat for about an hour.

Barnard tested heart transplants on dogs many times. Other doctors did this too, with some of their dogs living over a year. As new medical discoveries were made, several teams got ready to try a human heart transplant. Barnard had a patient ready, but he still needed a suitable donor heart.

During a time called Apartheid in South Africa, Hamilton Naki worked at Groote Schuur Hospital. He started as a gardener and cleaner but learned to help with medical experiments. He became very skilled and helped teach many surgeons. Some stories say Naki was present during Barnard’s famous heart transplant, but this is not true.

First human-to-human heart transplant

Dr. Christiaan Barnard did the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant on December 3, 1967. The patient was Louis Washkansky, a 54-year-old grocer with a serious heart problem. Barnard and his team worked for about five hours to finish the surgery.

The heart came from Denise Darvall, a young woman who had a serious accident. Her family agreed to let doctors use her heart for the surgery. After the operation, Washkansky could talk and was awake. However, he passed away a few weeks later because of an infection.

Additional heart transplants

Barnard and his patient became very famous around the world. Many doctors performed heart transplants in 1968, but most patients did not live very long. Only a few medical centers kept doing these operations.

Barnard performed his second transplant on January 2, 1968, and the patient lived for 19 months. Another patient, Dirk van Zyl, lived for over 23 years after his transplant in 1971.

Between 1967 and 1974, ten heart transplants were done at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. Some patients lived for many years after their operations.

Barnard developed a new method called the "piggy back" transplant, where the patient's old heart stays while a new one is added. This method helped improve survival rates. Later, a new medicine helped patients' bodies accept the new hearts better.

Public life

Barnard spoke out against unfair laws in South Africa, even though it was hard to do when he traveled to other countries. He used his fame to support changes in the law instead of leaving his home. His brother, Marius Barnard, entered politics and was elected to the legislature from the Progressive Federal Party.

Before a trip to Kenya in 1978, Barnard talked about race relations in South Africa. He believed Africans should have a role in the country's politics but was against equal voting rights for everyone. He suggested dividing the country into separate areas for different racial groups. He also talked about events like the Soweto uprising and the death of Steve Biko. Barnard felt that both black and white communities were troubled by Biko's death. He compared South Africa to King Lear, saying the country had faced more trouble than it caused.

Personal life

Christiaan Barnard married a nurse named Aletta Gertruida Louw in 1948, and they had two children. He later married Barbara Zoellner in 1970, and they also had two children. His third marriage was to Karin Setzkorn in 1988, and they had two more children. All of his marriages ended in divorce.

Barnard wrote about a brief relationship during a visit to Rome in 1968. He met with Pope Paul VI during that time.

Retirement

Christiaan Barnard stopped working as a top heart surgeon in Cape Town in 1983 because his hands were affected by a condition called rheumatoid arthritis. He had dealt with this condition since 1956. After retiring, he spent time in the United States working at a transplant center and giving advice to different groups.

Barnard became very interested in research about aging. In 1986, he supported a costly skin cream, but it was later taken off the market. He also worked with a clinic in Switzerland that used unusual methods to help people feel younger. Later in life, Barnard split his time between Austria, where he created a foundation to help children in need around the world, and his game farm in South Africa. He was treated for skin cancer in Parow, South Africa.

Death

Christiaan Barnard died on 2 September 2001 while he was on holiday in Paphos, Cyprus. People first thought he might have a heart problem, but tests showed he died from a serious asthma attack.

Books

Christiaan Barnard wrote two books about his life. The first, called One Life, came out in 1969. His second book, The Second Life, was published in 1993.

He also wrote other books about health and living well. Some of these books were The Donor, Your Healthy Heart, and 50 Ways to a Healthy Heart.