Christiaan Barnard and his contributions to heart transplantation

Christiaan (Chris) Barnard was born in South Africa in 1922 and qualified i n medicine at the University of Cape Town in 1946. Following surgical train ing in Cape Town and Minneapolis, Barnard established a successful open hea rt surgery program at Groote Schuur Hospital. In 1967, he led the team that performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant. Although his first patient survived only 18 days, 4 of his first 10 patients survived fo r more than 1 year, 2 living for 13 and 23 years, respectively. With his ju nior colleague, Jaques Losman, Barnard then developed the operation of hete rotopic heart transplantation. In 1981, his group was the first to successf ully transport donor hearts using a hypothermic perfusion storage device. S everal studies on the hemodynamic and metabolic sequelae of brain death wer e carried out in his department. Barnard retired from the University of Cap e Town in 1983 at the age of 61. Now in his 79th year, he continues to purs ue his interest in writing for the public. In the words of one of his forme r colleagues, he is a "surgical visionary and simply the most unforgettable character of the second generation of cardiac surgeons."