when was the first heart transplantation occurs?

Answer 1

Going back to history, heart transplantation was first done to dogs by the French surgeon Alexis Carrel from the year 1902.

James Hardy attempted a human heart transplant in 1964, but a premature failure of the recipient's heart caught Hardy with no human donor, he used a chimpanzee heart which failed very quickly.

The first successful heart transplantation was done by Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa on December 3, 1967. Louis Washkansky, the recipient, survived for eighteen days only.

Hope this answers your question.

Answer 2

Article on Dr Chistian Barnard:
The world's first heart transplant operation was performed on 3 December 1967 in an operation, assisted by Michael DeBakey, lasting nine hours and using a team of thirty persons. The patient, Louis Washkansky, was 55 years old and suffering from diabetes and heart disease. The transplant heart came from a young woman, Denise Darvall, killed in a road accident. Washkansky survived the operation and lived for eighteen days, before succumbing to pneumonia induced by the immuno-suppressive drugs he was taking.

Answer 3

If you reword your question clearly, you may get good answers. It better reads as either "When was the first heart transplantation done?" or "When was the first heart transplantion?". A heart transplantation does not "occur" it has to be done by Cardiac Surgeons who specialize in that surgery.

Answer 4

The anniversary it coming up soon - it was December 3, 1967

Answer 5

It was performed in Capetown, South Africa, by Dr. Christian Barnard during the late '60's.

Answer 6

Ithink it was about 1958 and it was done some place in Africa by a Doctor Bernhardt.

Answer 7

First Human Heart Transplanted

Los Angeles Times

December 4, 1967

This Los Angeles Times article reports on a medical breakthrough: the first successful human heart transplant. Dr. Christiaan Barnard led the South African medical team that performed the operation. His name is spelled differently here than in other reports.


CAPE TOWN, South Africa—A South African hospital Sunday made medical history with the world's first human heart transplant. Surgeons removed the heart of a young woman who died after an automobile crash and placed it in the chest of a 55-year-old man, dying of heart damage, a hospital announcement said.


When the transplanted heart was in place, it was started beating by an electric shock, said Dr. Jan H. Louw, hospital chief surgeon. He added: “It was like turning the ignition switch of a car.”


Groote Schuur Hospital said the man was in satisfactory condition late Sunday, but that the next few days would be a critical period.

Heart Removed From Body


The heart was removed from the body of Denise Ann Darvall, 25, an accounting machine operator at a bank, and transferred to Louis Washkansky, a wholesale grocer, the hospital said.


Washkansky was reported fully conscious and in very satisfactory condition after the five-hour operation that ended at 6 a.m. The announcement said his blood pressure was normal by Sunday afternoon.


In the first stage of the heart transplant operation, both Washkansky and the body of Miss Darvall were put on heart-lung machines, each manned by a team of technicians.


In the second stage, the donor's heart was removed and the circulation of her heart, once it was removed, was kept going by a pump.


The third stage was the removal of Washkansky's heart.

Most Intricate Stage


The fourth and most intricate stage of the operation was the placing of the donor's heart in Washkansky's body. When the transplant was completed, electrodes were placed against the heart walls, and a high current was switched on for a fraction of a second.


The heart started beating immediately, Louw said.


Hospital sources at Groote Schuur Hospital said the transplant for Washkansky nearly took place last Wednesday with another donor but was canceled at the last moment because the donor died too soon.


Miss Darvall's kidneys also were removed and taken to Cape Town's Karl Bremer Hospital for a successful kidney transplant to Jonathan Van Wyk, 10.


The announcement of the transplant to Washkansky came from Dr. Jacobus G. Burger, medical supervisor of the hospital.


“The operation was his only chance,” Dr. Burger said. “Washkansky was dying and wouldn't have lived longer than a few days otherwise.”


The doctor said the next two or three days would be the critical postoperative period.


“The longer Washkansky goes on, the better,” he said, “although that does not mean the heart will not be rejected later. The body could decide in 5 or 10 years that it doesn't want this heart.”


Washkansky had a tracheotomy—a tube inserted in his throat through which he is breathing—and is unable to speak, said Dr. Burger. He is being kept absolutely quiet in a special room.


“Even the nurses don't speak to him,” he added.


Dr. Burger said apart from the body's natural tendency to reject the heart, the main danger could come from blood clotting and resultant heart failure.


Washkansky is being fed anticlotting drugs to counter this possibility.


“We are also using steroids to prevent the heart being thrown out (rejected),” Dr. Burger said.


He said Washkansky had been kept alive by using pumps to assist his heart, but this could not have gone on indefinitely.


“The heart muscle was fibrosed, which means that all the muscle was gone and there was only fibrous tissue there,” the doctor said. “It wouldn't pump the blood any more, and his condition was deteriorating.”

Life Depended on Pumps


“We thought he was dying a week ago, and he would have died immediately if we had taken the pumps away.


“Washkansky knew what he was going into, but it was his only chance.”


Heading the team of five cardiac surgeons was Prof. Christian Barnard.


In addition to the cardiac surgeons, there were two neurosurgeons and two anesthetists. Altogether there were about 20 in the operating theater, including five or six nurses, said Burger. All the surgeons were South Africans.


The woman donor was injured fatally in an auto accident Saturday afternoon. Neurosurgeons, with an electroencephalogram to measure her brain waves, alerted the cardiac surgeons the instant she died—shortly before 1 a.m.—and the operation began immediately.


Consent earlier had been obtained from her father to use her heart.


“The operation had to begin within half an hour of her death,” Burger said.


The woman's mother was killed instantly in the same auto accident.


Mrs. Washkansky said that before the transplant her husband's life was “hanging by a thread.” She said he was approached three weeks ago by doctors who told him “in great detail what it would entail. He snapped up the chance, not even making use of the two days they gave him to think it over. He kept saying: ‘I'll pull through.’”


Mrs. Washkansky said, “I was petrified but my husband had such confidence in medical men he inspired me as well.” She said he had had heart trouble for seven years and in the last two years his condition became progressively worse.


The hospital said the operation “was his only chance.” The donor's father, Edward Darvall, said: “I gave the doctors permission to remove my daughter's heart and kidneys and donate them to other persons if it could save their lives—it was shortly before midnight after I was informed she was dying.”


Dr. Burger said heart transplant experiments on cats and dogs had been carried out over the last 10 years at Groote Schuur, which in Afrikaans means big barn.


“Prof. Barnard has two registrars—young doctors studying for postgraduate degrees—continually experimenting in his animal laboratory,” Dr. Burger said. “I know he has successfully transplanted hearts of dogs, but I don't know how long the animals lived afterwards.”


Source: Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1967
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Answer 8

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