First human heart transplant
Primer trasplante de corazón humano
- Date
- 3 de diciembre de 1967 · confidence high
- Place
- Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa
- Credited to
- Christiaan Barnard and his team
- People
- 👤 Christiaan Barnard1922–2001
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Transplant of Denise Darvall's heart into Louis Washkansky, who lived for 18 days. It demonstrated the technical feasibility of heart transplantation.
The surgical technique came from Shumway and Lower (Stanford). This milestone already appears within the general entry on organ transplantation; here it is recorded in its actual place. Hamilton Naki, a Black hospital technician, was recognised later, although he did not take part in this operation.
What it led to
- heart transplant programmes worldwide
- the definition of brain death
- ciclosporin immunosuppression in the 1980s