Dr. Christiaan Barnard
Surgeon
Name at birth: Christiaan Neethling Barnard
Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world's first human heart transplant on 3 December 1967. The patient, 53-year-old dentist Louis Washkansky, was given the heart of a 25-year-old auto crash victim named Denise Darvall. Washkansky died from infection 18 days later, but the transplant made Barnard one of the world's most famous surgeons. He died in 2001 while vacationing in Cyprus, following an asthma attack.
Extra credit: Rheumatoid arthritis forced Barnard to give up surgery in 1983... According to the BBC, Barnard's transplant made him such a celebrity that he later dated actresses Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren... His autobiography, One Life, was published in 1969.
Blog posts mentioning Dr. Christiaan Barnard:
Happy Birthday, Dear John Ronald Reuuuuel...
Four Good Links
Pioneering Heart Surgeon Dies
BBC's report on his death, plus an obituary and past reports on the surgeon
Christiaan Barnard
FactBites has a list of facts culled from around the Web
PBS: People and Discoveries
Basic biography of Barnard, with details on the big transplant
Rediff on the Net: Christiaan Barnard
The doctor speaks out on euthanasia and transplants in this 1997 interview
Vital Stats
Birth
Birthplace
Death
2 September 2001
(age 78)
Best Known As
The doctor who performed the first heart transplant
