Christiaan Barnard

Christiaan Neethling Barnard was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident victim Denise Darvall into the chest of 54-year-old Louis Washkansky. After the surgery, Washkansky was able to talk easily with his wife, though he passed away 18 days later from a sickness caused by the medicines used to help his body accept the new heart.

Barnard was born in Beaufort West, Cape Province, and studied medicine before becoming a surgeon. Early in his career, he developed a treatment that helped save ten babies in Cape Town who had a problem with their intestines. Later, he worked in the United States where he learned about new surgical machines that helped with heart operations.

After retiring from surgery in 1983 due to health problems with his hands, Barnard turned his attention to research about aging. He also created the Christiaan Barnard Foundation to support children in need around the world. He passed away in 2001 at the age of 78 after experiencing 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, sadly passed away as a baby due to a heart problem. Barnard finished his schooling 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 completed advanced studies in medicine.

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

Historical context

After the first successful kidney transplant in 1953 in the United States, Barnard carried out South Africa's second kidney transplant in October 1967. The first kidney transplant in South Africa had 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, but the man did not wake up.

Barnard had tested heart transplants on dogs, doing this forty-eight times. Other doctors had done more, with some of their dogs living over a year. As new medical discoveries were being made, several teams were getting 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, including those working with Barnard. Some stories incorrectly say Naki was present during Barnard’s famous heart transplant, but this is not true.

First human-to-human heart transplant

Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant on December 3, 1967. The patient was Louis Washkansky, a 54-year-old grocer who had a serious heart problem. Barnard and his team worked for about five hours to complete 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 was able to talk and was awake. However, he passed away a few weeks later because of an infection linked to the special medicine he needed to help his body accept the new heart.

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 difficult for him to do so when traveling to other countries. Instead of leaving his home, he used his fame to support changes in the law. 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 shared his thoughts on 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 and included coloured people with the white population. He thought black people would not agree with this idea. He also commented on events like the Soweto uprising and the death of Steve Biko, mentioning outside influences on these situations. 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 together. Later, he 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. Later, a woman named Ann McLane Kuster shared that Barnard acted inappropriately toward her during a business meeting when she was younger.

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 called Glycel, but it was later taken off the market by United States officials. 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 passed away on 2 September 2001 while he was on holiday in Paphos, Cyprus. At first, people thought he had a heart problem, but tests later showed that he died from a very bad asthma attack.

Books

Christiaan Barnard wrote two books about his own life. The first, called One Life, came out in 1969 and sold many copies around the world. Some of the money from this book went to help research heart disease and heart transplants in Cape Town. His second book, The Second Life, was published in 1993.

Besides these, Barnard also wrote several other books on health, living well, and different topics. These included titles like The Donor, Your Healthy Heart, and 50 Ways to a Healthy Heart.