December 3: First Human to Human Heart Transplant (1967)
Prayer Idea
Pray for people who work in transporting and transplanting organs.
History Note
Dr. Joseph Murray pioneered organ transplants in humans in 1954. At a hospital in Massachusetts, Murray took a healthy kidney from Ron Herrick and successfully transplanted it into Ron’s twin brother, Richard, who had kidney failure. Successful transplants of the liver and pancreas followed in the 1960s.
Dr. Christiaan Barnard and Dr. Marius Barnard, brothers in South Africa, recognized the life-saving potential of heart transplants. They experimented with transplanting hearts in dogs to understand the process.
In 1967 Christian Barnard and his team identified a patient who would be a good candidate for a heart transplant. Louis Waskansky was 53 years old and suffering from heart failure. On December 2, Denise Darvall was fatally injured in a car accident. After she died at the hospital, her father agreed to donate her heart.
In the early morning of December 3, Dr. Barnard and his team successfully transplanted Ms. Darvall’s heart into Mr. Waskansky’s body. The heart started beating on its own, and Mr. Waskansky regained full consciousness. The world media closely followed the story.
Unfortunately, complications after surgery developed into pneumonia, and Mr. Waskansky only lived for 18 days. However, Dr. Barnard continued to develop the procedure, and soon his heart transplant patients were living for many years.
The first photograph of the surgical team taken after the first heart transplant. Photo courtesy David Cooper from his article “Christiaan Barnard-The surgeon who dared: The story of the first human-to-human heart transplant.” CC BY 4.0.
Learn More
Watch a video about the procedure.
Find more resources at Homeschool History.
