1965-1973+Carly+Banal

//**﻿* **////**__First Heart Transplant-1967 __* **// In the 60's people think it is mostly about hippies. Although it is the age of the hippies, much more important things happened in the 60's also. Such as the first heart transplant preformed on December 3rd, 1967. A South African surgeon preforms the first heart transplant. Chirstiaan Barnard gives the first human-to-human heart transplant surgery. He has done many other transplants before, but only on dogs. He had thirty memebers to accompany him in the surgery. The surgery was a success.

﻿ ﻿ The transplant was done on fifty-three year old, Louis Washkansky. Louis Washkansky suffered from diabetes and an incurable heart disease. He was a grocer in Cape Town. He recieved the heart from a twenty-five year old women named Denise Darvall. She died in a car accident the day before. Once she was removed from life support, her father gave permission to use his daughter's heart. After that, they could start on the heart transplant.

The surgery was preformed at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. The drugs that he recieved weakened his immune system. Eighteen days after the surgery, Washkansky died of double pneumonia. He had gotten this sickness from his weakend immune system. Louis Washkansky took a dangerous risk to be the first person who had a heart transplant. It had to be done sometime, but this advancment leads to more advances in heart transplants and more surgeries.

Later after Christiaan Barnard became a celebrity, he preformed many more heart transplants. His patients' surving times improved over the years. One patient, Dorothy Fisher, survived twenty-four years after her heart transplant. She had recieved her new heart in 1969. This shows that Barnard improved immensly with this surgical procedure.

The first heart transplant is just one of so many exciting and interesting things that happend during this time period. The 60's is full of things that you probably may never even knew happened. This is just one of them. This event leads to many advances in health and surgical advances. In conclusion, I think Christiaan Barnard should be recognized as a hero for this great achievement. This excellent event went down in history and saved many lives along the way. I believe that the heart transplant will effect the world immensly in our medical studies. So do not think of the 60's as boring, it was really a time of great achievements.

Good information - 95-CP



