General Knowledge - Basic General Knowledge - Discussion

The first human-to-human heart transplant is performed. The operation is a success, but the patient dies after complications set in.

South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard, who prepared for this day by performing several experimental heart transplants involving dogs, led a 30-member surgical team in implanting the heart of a young woman into 53-year-old Louis Washkansky, a Cape Town grocer suffering from diabetes and incurable heart disease.

Washkansky received the heart of Denise Darvall, a 25-year-old bank clerk who was left brain-dead following an automobile accident the day before. She was removed from life support, and her father permitted her heart to be given to Washkansky.

The transplant, performed at Cape Town's Groote Schuur Hospital, was a success. Washkansky's body did not reject the heart, due in large part to the immunosuppressive drugs he received. But those drugs also weakened his immune system, and he contracted double pneumonia, which killed him 18 days after the transplant.

Barnard, who became an international celebrity (and revelled in it) as a result of the transplant, soldiered on. Over the next several years, he performed additional heart transplants, with the survival times for his patients gradually improving. One patient, Dorothy Fisher, survived for 24 years after receiving a new heart in 1969.

Thanks all for the answer.

Realy it is very useful information. Thanks for providing such information.

Usefull information. Thanks guys.

Thank you all for the given information.

Thanks all for giving the valuable information.

Thank you very much for sharing the explanation.

Thank you so much for explaining the answer.

On 3 December 1967, South African doctor, Dr Christiaan (Chris) Barnard, performed the world's first human to a human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town.

Thanks for this useful information.