Dr Christiaan Barnard's Kevo

Christiaan Neethling Barnard is the South African cardiothoracic surgeon who, in 1967 at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, performed the first human heart transplant. Barnard was born on November 8, 1922, in Beaufort West, South Africa. He attended the local high school and then, in 1940, went to the University of Cape Town, where he received his medical degree in 1946. After working in private practice from 1948 to 1951, Barnard became Senior Resident Medical Officer at the City Hospital in Cape Town for two years. In 1953, Barnard was elected Registrar at Groote Schuur Hospital, later to be the place of his most important work. In 1956, he was awarded a scholarship to the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA; he returned to South Africa two years later, taking with him a heart-lung machine. He became Director of Surgical Research at Groote Schuur and the University of Cape Town, and in 1961 was made Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

Barnard's early research involved experiments with heart transplants in dogs. His success convinced him that similar operations could be performed on human patients. In December 1967, Denise Duvall, a 25-year-old woman, was critically injured in a road accident in Cape Town, and after it was established that her brain was irreparably damaged, permission was obtained for her heart to be donated for transplant purposes. The recipient was a man in his fifties, Louis Washkansky, whose heart - in Barnard's words - was 'shattered and ruined'. X-ray motion pictures (angiograms) were taken of Washkansky's heart by injecting radio-opaque dye into each side using catheters inserted into the veins and arteries. These films were taken to prepare the surgical team for the operation on Washkansky.

Once the donor heart had been removed, Barnard cut away part of it so that it would fit what remained of the recipient's heart. Two holes were made in the donor heart, one through which the venae cavae could enter and one for the pulmonary veins. The edges of these holes were stitched onto the waiting part of Washkansky's heart. The difference in size of the hearts did not matter because the openings in the donor heart could be enlarged to match the recipient's heart. Surgically this first transplant was a success, but Washkansky died 18 days after the operation from double pneumonia - probably contracted as a result of the immunosuppressive drugs administered to him to prevent his body from rejecting the new heart.

Barnard continued to perform heart transplants, improving his methods all the time. Unfortunately the number of operations performed by him decreased because of the worsening arthritis in his hands. Open-heart surgery was first introduced in South Africa by Barnard, and he further developed cardiothoracic surgery by new designs for artificial heart valves. His other achievements have included the discovery that intestinal artresia - a congenital deformity in the form of a hole in the small intestine - is the result of an insufficient supply of blood to the fetus during pregnancy. It was a fatal defect before Barnard developed the corrective surgery. Barnard's techniques for heart transplant surgery have been adopted and developed by many surgeons, and as the methods improve they can give a new lease of life to those suffering from fatal heart conditions.
Climb to Fame
Surgeon who performed the first ever heart transplant
Work History
(1999) Honorary Chairman of Microbial Solutions, Inc's Scientific Advisory Committee.

(1984) Professor Emeritus, University of Cape Town.

(12/1974) Performs world's first hetrotopic transplant in which a second heart was implanted in a human and connected to the existing heart to provide blood circulation.

(1968) Head of Cardiac Research and Surgery at University of Cape Town.

(12/03/1967) Performs first ever heart transplant in Capetown, South Africa at Groote Schuur Hospital.

(1958) Director of Surgical Research at Groote Schuur Hospital

(1956) Attended School at University of Minnesota (USA).

(1953) Registrar at Groote Schuur Hospital.

(1951) Senior Resident at City Hopital in Capetown.

(1948) Worked in private medical practice.

(1946) University of Capetown.
Awards
Dr Christiaan Barnard has also won numerous Awards