They called him “the Divine messenger”. To the 100th anniversary of Christiaan N. Barnard.

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the 100th anniversary of Christiaan N. Barnard (19222001) a South African cardiac surgeon, humanitarian activist and writer who implemented the first human heart transplantation. By the middle of 1960-s about a dozen clinics all over the world were technically ready for this kind of injury, being opposed by legal uncertainty and prejudice. Somebody had to have enough courage and responsibility to overcome these obstacles. It was Barnard who did it. On December 3, 1967, at Groote Schuur University Hospital in Cape Town, he replaced the failing heart of 54-year-old Louis Washkansky with the healthy heart of 25-year-old Denise Darvall, who had died with extensive brain damage from a car accident. This event not only opened a new page in open-heart surgery. As clinical firsts, Barnards heart transplantations were great miraculous medical successes that fueled a kind of media frenzy. They were considered to be a world sensation comparable to early space flights, and his personal popularity comparable to that of movie stars. Barnards professional activity. that saved many hundreds of human lives, lasted until he retired in 1983 to devote the rest of his life to charity and humanitarian projects. His antiracist novel The unwanted as well as non-fictions One Life and 50 ways to a healthy heart became the world bestsellers. In our time more than 3500 patients receive new hearts worldwide annually. More than half of the treated patients are expected to survive longer than for 10 years. It is the best monument in memory of this outstanding surgeon and humanist.