Vol. 21 No. 3S (2017): TO 60th anniversary of Meshalkin Center (Special Issue)
TO 50th ANNIVERSARY OF HEART TRANSPLANTATION

Christiaan N. Barnard (1922–2001) and his path to heart transplantation

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  • V. Kaleda
V. Kaleda
Ochapowski Regional Hospital, 350086 Krasnodar, Russian Federation
Bio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21688/1681-3472-2017-3S-92-100

Published 2017-09-22

Keywords

  • Christiaan Barnard,
  • heart transplantation,
  • history of medicine,
  • history of cardiac surgery,
  • history of transplantology

How to Cite

Kaleda, V. (2017). Christiaan N. Barnard (1922–2001) and his path to heart transplantation. Patologiya Krovoobrashcheniya I Kardiokhirurgiya, 21(3S), 92–100. https://doi.org/10.21688/1681-3472-2017-3S-92-100

Copyright (c) 2017 Kaleda V.I.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

First human-to-human heart transplantation performed on the 3th of December 1967 in Cape Town has become one of the most striking events in the history of medicine in 20th century. It also made an unknown surgeon Christiaan Barnard a world celebrity. Nowadays heart transplantation has become a routine procedure in many countries. Nevertheless, the happenings which took place 50 years ago are still exciting with the determination, courage and charisma of those who were related to this history. This paper describes the circumsances of the first heart transplantation and provides the biography of Ch. Barnard whose name is inextricably linked to this event.

Received 4 September 2017. Accepted 7 October 2017.

Funding: The study did not have sponsorship.
Conflict of interest: The author declares no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements:
I express my gratitude to prof. Vladimir V. Alexi-Meskishvili (Berlin, Germany), Р. Тоов из Архивов Университета Миннесоты (Миннеаполис, США), К. Петерсон из Национального музея американской истории (Вашингтон, США), Д. Смит из Хелс энд Медикал Паблишинг Гроуп (Претория, ЮАР) and Sergey Yu. Boldyrev (Krasnodar, Russia) for the illustrations used in this paper.

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