Christiaan Barnard
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Christiaan Neethling Barnard (November 8, 1922 – September 2, 2001) was a South African cardiac surgeon. He is famous for performing the world's first successful human-to-human heart transplant.
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[edit] Early life
Barnard grew up under humble circumstances in Beaufort West, South Africa, son of a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. One of his brothers died of a heart problem while a toddler, an event which profoundly affected the Barnard family and Christaan's career ambitions.[citation needed] He studied medicine at the University of Cape Town Medical School, did his internship and residency the at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, and became a general practitioner in Ceres, a rural town in the Western Cape province. In 1951, he returned to Cape Town to work at two hospitals and complete his Masters degree, receiving that in 1953 from the University of Cape Town. He later obtained a doctorate in medicine from the same university for a dissertation entitled "The treatment of tuberculous Meningitis".
As a resident surgeon at Groote Schuur Hospital (1953–56), Barnard was the first to show that congenital intestinal atresia can be caused by an insufficient blood supply to the fetus during pregnancy.
From 1956, he attended the University of Minnesota to study surgery. While in Minneapolis he became involved in cardiothoracic surgery and chose that as his specialty. It was during this time that Barnard first became acquainted with Norman Shumway, who did much of the pioneering research leading to the first human heart transplant.
Barnard was appointed cardiothoracic surgeon at the Groote Schuur Hospital in 1958, establishing the hospital's first heart unit.
He experimented for several years with animal heart transplants following the first successful kidney transplant in 1953 — Barnard performed the first kidney transplant in South Africa in 1959. He also lectured at the University of Cape Town, and in 1961 he was made head of cardiothoracic surgery at the university.
[edit] Heart transplant
The world's first human heart transplant operation was performed on 3 December 1967 in an operation, assisted by his brother, Marius Barnard, 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.
Barnard was quite photogenic and enjoyed the media attention following the operation, which made him famous around the world.
Barnard continued to perform heart transplants: a transplant operation was conducted on 2 January 1968, and the patient, Philip Blaiberg, survived for 19 months. Mrs Dorothy Fisher was given a new heart in 1969 and became the longest surviving patient, she lived for 24 years after the transplant.([1]).
He also pioneered new and risky techniques, including double transplants (1974), artificial valves and using animal hearts for emergency treatment (1977). He performed 10 orthotopic transplants (1967 – 1973), and Barnard or his group performed 48 heterotopic transplants (1975 – 1983). The introduction of cyclosporine meant a resumption in orthotopic operations.
[edit] Personal life
Barnard's first marriage was to Aletta Louw, a nurse, whom he married in 1948 while practicing in medicine in Ceres. In 1969, Barnard got a divorce, and in 1970 he married the glamorous Barbara Zoellner. Barnard divorced again in 1982, and got married for a third time in 1988 to the youthful Karin Setzkorn, divorcing again in 2000. Christiaan Barnard wrote two autobiographies. The first book,One Life, was published in 1969, and the second,The Second Life, was published in 1993. Copies of One Life were sold worldwide and some of the proceeds were used to set up the Chris Barnard Fund for research into heart disease and heart transplants in Cape Town.
[edit] Books
Other than his autobiography, One Life, Dr Barnard also wrote several books including:
- The Donor
- Your Healthy Heart
- The Second Life
- Night Season
- The Best Medicine
- Arthritis Handbook: How to Live With Arthritis
- Good Life Good Death: A Doctor's Case for Euthanasia and Suicide
- South Africa: Sharp Dissection
- 50 Ways to a Healthy Heart
- Body Machine
[edit] Retirement
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Barnard retired from medical practice in 1983, due to stiffness brought on by rheumatoid arthritis affecting his hands, mostly due to activities on his ranch in the Great Karoo.
He had since become very interested in anti-aging research, and his reputation suffered in 1986 when he promoted Glycel, a product that was withdrawn by the United States Food and Drug Administration soon thereafter. He himself expressed regret for endorsing Glycel later.
Christiaan Barnard died whilst on holiday in Paphos, Cyprus, leaving behind five children. Early reports claimed that he had died of a heart attack, although an autopsy showed his death to be caused by an acute asthma attack.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- In Memoriam : Christiaan Neethling Barnard - including a very good photograph of Dr Christiaan Barnard
