View source for Christiaan Barnard

{{Short description|South African cardiac surgeon (1922–2001)}}
{{pp|small=yes}}
{{Use South African English|date=May 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Redirect|Chris Barnard}}
{{Infobox medical person
| name              = Christiaan Barnard
| image             = Heart transplant pioneer Barnard here on Visit (FL61733185).jpg
| image_upright     = 0.75
| alt               = Black-and-white headshot of Christiaan Barnard, a white middle-aged man wearing a white coat. 
| caption           = Barnard in 1972
| birth_name        = Christiaan Neethling Barnard
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1922|11|8|df=yes}}
| birth_place       = [[Beaufort West]], [[Cape Province]], Union of South Africa
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2001|9|2|1922|11|8}}
| death_place       = [[Paphos]], Cyprus
| profession        = [[Surgeon]]
| specialism        = {{ubl
  | [[Cardiothoracic surgery]]
  | [[Heart transplantation]]
  }}
| research_field    =
| known_for         = First successful human-to-human heart transplant
| years_active      = 1950–2001
| education         = {{ubl
  | [[University of Cape Town]]
  }}
| work_institutions = {{ubl
  | [[Groote Schuur Hospital]]
  | University of Minnesota
  }}
| prizes            =
| spouse            = {{ubl
  | {{marriage|Aletta Gertruida Louw|1948|1969|end=divorced}}
  | {{marriage|Barbara Zoellner|1970|1982|end=divorced}}
  | {{marriage|Karin Setzkorn|1988|2000|end=divorced}}
  }}
| children          = 6
| relatives         = [[Marius Barnard (surgeon)|Marius Barnard]] (brother)
}}

'''Christiaan Neethling Barnard''' (8{{nbsp}}November 1922{{snd}}2{{nbsp}}September 2001) was a South African [[cardiothoracic surgery|cardiac surgeon]] who performed the world's first human-to-human [[heart transplant]] operation.<ref name="Organ Donation, GlobalViewpoints, Margaret Haerens editor, 2013" /><ref name="The operation that took medicine into the media age, BBC, 2017" /> On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident victim [[Denise Darvall]] into the chest of 54-year-old [[Louis Washkansky]], who regained full consciousness and was able to talk easily with his wife, before dying 18 days later of [[pneumonia]], largely brought on by the [[Immunosuppressive drug|anti-rejection drugs]] that suppressed his [[immune system]].<ref name="S-Afr-Med-J-Barnard's-first-heart-transplant" /><ref name="mcrae2006" /><ref name=New-York-Times-2001-obituary-Christiaan-Barnard/><ref name=Science-Museum-patient-Louis-Washkansky/> Barnard had told Mr. and Mrs. Washkansky that the operation had an 80% chance of success, an assessment which has been criticised as misleading.<ref name="Calculated-Risks-Gerd-Gigerenzer-2002" /><ref name="Companion-To-Bioethics-Second-Edition-2012" /><ref name="Barnard stating to Mr. and Mrs. Washkansky 80% of success, in Every Second Counts, by Donald McRae" /> Barnard's second transplant patient, [[Philip Blaiberg]], whose operation was performed at the beginning of 1968, returned home from the hospital and lived for a year and a half.<ref name=New-York-Times-2001-obituary-Christiaan-Barnard/><ref name=Chicago-Tribune-Philip-Blaiberg-1968/>

Born in [[Beaufort West]], [[Cape Province]], Barnard studied medicine and practised for several years in his native South Africa.<ref name=New-York-Times-2001-obituary-Christiaan-Barnard/> As a young doctor experimenting on dogs, Barnard developed a remedy for the infant defect of [[intestinal atresia]]. His technique saved the lives of ten babies in [[Cape Town]] and was adopted by surgeons in Britain and the United States.<ref name="Every Second Counts, pages 48–49, Barnard's work remedying intestinal atresia" /> In 1955, he travelled to the United States and was initially assigned further gastrointestinal work by [[Owen Harding Wangensteen]] at the [[University of Minnesota]].<ref name="Every Second Counts, page 51" /> He was introduced to the heart-lung machine, and Barnard was allowed to transfer to the service run by open heart surgery pioneer [[C. Walton Lillehei|Walt Lillehei]].<ref name="Every Second Counts, page 53, Barnard meets Vince Gott" /> Upon returning to South Africa in 1958, Barnard was appointed head of the Department of Experimental Surgery at the Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town.<ref name=BMJ-Raymond-Hoffenberg-December-2001/>

He retired as head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Cape Town in 1983 after [[rheumatoid arthritis]] in his hands ended his surgical career. He became interested in anti-aging research, and in 1986 his reputation suffered when he promoted [[Glycel]], an expensive "anti-aging" skin cream, whose approval was withdrawn by the United States [[Food and Drug Administration]] soon thereafter. During his remaining years, he established the [[Christiaan Barnard Foundation]], dedicated to helping underprivileged children throughout the world. He died in 2001 at the age of 78 after an asthma attack.

==Early life==
Barnard was born on November 8, 1922 and grew up in [[Beaufort West]], [[Cape Province]], Union of South Africa.<ref name="ctsnet">{{cite web |title=Christiaan N. Barnard |url=http://www.ctsnet.org/doc/6272 |website=CTSNet |access-date=14 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061217194135/http://www.ctsnet.org/doc/6272 |archive-date=17 December 2006}}</ref> His father, Adam Barnard, was a minister in the [[Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa|Dutch Reformed Church]].<ref name="mcrae2006" /> One of his four brothers, Abraham, was a "blue baby" who died of a heart problem at the age of three (Barnard would later guess that it was [[tetralogy of Fallot]]). The family also experienced the loss of a daughter who was stillborn and who had been the fraternal twin of Barnard's older brother Johannes, who was twelve years older than Christiaan.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McRae |first=Donald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Fv9dRT9TC4C&dq=%22Chris+and+Marius+often+felt+that+she+was+grieving+over+the+loss+of+her+only+daughter%22&pg=PT44 |title=Every Second Counts: The Race to Transplant the First Human Heart |date=7 August 2007 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-4406-2887-0 |page=46 |authorlink=Donald McRae (author)}}</ref> Barnard matriculated from the Beaufort West High School in 1940, and went to study medicine at the [[University of Cape Town]] Medical School, where he obtained his [[MBChB|MB ChB]] in 1945.

His father served as a missionary to mixed-race people. His mother, the former Maria Elisabeth de Swart, instilled in the surviving brothers the belief that they could do anything they set their minds to.<ref name=New-York-Times-2001-obituary-Christiaan-Barnard/>

==Career==
Barnard did his [[internship (medicine)|internship]] and [[residency (medicine)|residency]] at the [[Groote Schuur Hospital]] in Cape Town, after which he worked as a general practitioner in [[Ceres, Western Cape|Ceres]], a rural town in the [[Cape Province]].<ref name="mcrae2006">''Every Second Counts: The Race to Transplant the First Human Heart'', [[Donald McRae (author)|Donald McRae]], New York: Penguin (Berkley/Putnam), 2006. See esp. Ch. 10 "The Wait" and Ch. 11 "Fame and Heartbreak", pages 173–214.</ref> In 1951, he returned to Cape Town where he worked at the City Hospital as a Senior Resident Medical Officer, and in the Department of Medicine at Groote Schuur as a registrar.<ref name="mcrae2006" /> He completed his master's degree, receiving Master of Medicine in 1953 from the University of Cape Town. In the same year he obtained a doctorate in medicine (MD) from the same university for a dissertation titled "The treatment of tuberculous meningitis".

Soon after qualifying as a doctor, Barnard performed experiments on dogs while investigating [[intestinal atresia]], congenital, life-threatening obstructions in the intestines. He followed a medical hunch that this was caused by inadequate blood flow to the fetus. After nine months and forty-three attempts, Barnard was able to reproduce this condition in a fetus puppy by tying off some of the blood supply to a puppy's intestines and then placing the animal back in the womb, after which it was born some two weeks later, with the condition of intestinal atresia. He was also able to cure the condition by removing the piece of intestine with inadequate blood supply. The mistake of previous surgeons had been attempting to reconnect ends of intestine which themselves still had inadequate blood supply. To be successful, it was typically necessary to remove between 15 and 20 centimeters of intestine (6 to 8 inches). Jannie Louw used this innovation in a clinical setting, and Barnard's method saved the lives of ten babies in Cape Town. This technique was also adapted by surgeons in Britain and the US. In addition, Barnard analyzed 259 cases of [[tubercular meningitis]].<ref name="Every Second Counts, pages 48–49, Barnard's work remedying intestinal atresia">''Every Second Counts'', McRae, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Fv9dRT9TC4C&dq=%22Soon+after+qualifying+as+a+doctor%2C+Barnard+produced+a+staggering+piece+of+experimental+research%22&pg=PT45 pages 48–49].</ref>

[[Owen Harding Wangensteen|Owen Wangensteen]] at the [[University of Minnesota]] in the United States had been impressed by the work of Alan Thal, a young South African doctor working in Minnesota. Wangensteen asked the Groote Schuur Head of Medicine John Brock if he might recommend any similarly talented South Africans, and Brock recommended Barnard.<ref name="Every Second Counts, page 49, Barnard goes to Minnesota">''Every Second Counts'', McRae, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Fv9dRT9TC4C&dq=%22In+December+1955%2C+Christiaan+Barnard+flew+to+the+city+of+snow%22&pg=PT47 page 49].</ref> In December 1955, Barnard travelled to [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]] to begin a two-year scholarship under Chief of Surgery Wangensteen, who assigned Barnard more work on the intestines, which Barnard accepted even though he wanted to move onto something new.<ref name="Every Second Counts, page 51">''Every Second Counts'', McRae, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Fv9dRT9TC4C&dq=%22Wangensteen+considered+gastrointestinal+research+to+be+intellectually+delicious%22&pg=PT48 page 51].</ref> Simply by luck, whenever Barnard needed a break from this work, he could wander across the hall and talk with [[Vince Gott]] who ran the lab for open-heart surgery pioneer [[C. Walton Lillehei|Walt Lillehei]]. Gott had begun to develop a technique of running blood backwards through the veins of the heart so Lillehei could more easily operate on the aortic valve (McRae writes, "It was the type of inspired thinking that entranced Barnard"). In March 1956, Gott asked Barnard to help him run the heart-lung machine for an operation.<ref name="Every Second Counts, page 53, Barnard meets Vince Gott">''Every Second Counts'', McRae, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Fv9dRT9TC4C&dq=%22Whenever+he+needed+a+break+from+the+gullet%2C+Barnard+wandered+across+the+hall%22&pg=PT50 page 53].</ref> Shortly thereafter, Wangensteen agreed to let Barnard switch to Lillehei's service. It was during this time that Barnard became acquainted with fellow future heart transplantation surgeon [[Norman Shumway]].<ref name="Invest-Surg-2010">{{Cite journal |last=Toledo-Pereyra LH |year=2010 |title=Christiaan Barnard |journal=J Invest Surg |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=72–78 |doi=10.3109/08941939.2010.484321 |pmid=20497008 |s2cid=44625805 |quote=under pioneer surgeons C. Walton Lillehei and Richard L. Varco. Many future distinguished cardiac surgeons, such as Shumway, Cabrol, and many others, were his contemporaries at Minnesota.}}</ref> Barnard also became friendly with Gil Campbell, who had demonstrated that a dog's lung could be used to oxygenate blood during open-heart surgery. (The year before Barnard arrived, Lillehei and Campbell had used this procedure for twenty minutes during surgery on a 13-year-old boy with ventricular septal defect, and the boy had made a full recovery.) Barnard and Campbell met regularly for early breakfast.<ref>''Every Second Counts'', McRae, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Fv9dRT9TC4C&dq=%22the+South+African+relaxed+a+little+and+became+friendly+with+Gil+Campbell%22&pg=PT51 page 54].</ref> In 1958, Barnard received a Master of Science in Surgery for a thesis titled "The [[aortic valve]] – problems in the fabrication and testing of a prosthetic valve".<ref name="mcrae2006" /> The same year he was awarded a Ph.D. for his dissertation titled "The aetiology of congenital intestinal [[atresia]]".<ref name="mcrae2006" /> Barnard described the two years he spent in the United States as "the most fascinating time in my life."{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

Upon returning to South Africa in 1958, Barnard was appointed head of the Department of Experimental Surgery at Groote Schuur hospital, as well as holding a joint post at the [[University of Cape Town]].<ref name="BMJ-Raymond-Hoffenberg-December-2001">{{Cite journal |last=Hoffenberg R |year=2001 |title=Christiaan Barnard: his first transplants and their impact on concepts of death |journal=BMJ |volume=323 |issue=7327 |pages=1478–80 |doi=10.1136/bmj.323.7327.1478 |pmc=1121917 |pmid=11751363}}</ref><ref name="Dictionary-of-African-Biography-Volume-6-2012">''Dictionary of African Biography, Volume 6'', Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., editors-in-chief, [https://books.google.com/books?id=39JMAgAAQBAJ&dq=%22as+well+as+surgical+work+and+teaching%2C+he+did+advanced+work+in+research+laboratories%22&pg=PA386 Barnard, Christiaan Neethling], Anne Digby, Oxford University Press, 2012.</ref> He was promoted to full-time lecturer and Director of Surgical Research at the University of Cape Town. In 1960, he flew to Moscow in order to meet [[Vladimir Demikhov]], a top expert on [[Organ transplantation|organ transplants]]<ref>Bosco, Teresio (1968) ''{{interlanguage link|Uomini come noi|it}}'', Società Editrice Internazionale</ref> (later he credited Demikhov's accomplishment saying that "if there is a father of heart and lung transplantation then Demikhov certainly deserves this title.")<ref>Fricke, T. A.; Konstantinov, I. E. (2013) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pejGYnnkddwC&pg=PA82 Dawn and Evolution of Cardiac Procedures]'', [[Springer (publisher)|Springer]]</ref> In 1961 he was appointed Head of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the teaching hospitals of the University of Cape Town. He rose to associate professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Cape Town in 1962. Barnard's younger brother [[Marius Barnard (surgeon)|Marius]], who also studied medicine, eventually became Barnard's right-hand man at the department of Cardiac Surgery.<ref name="mcrae2006" /> Over time, Barnard became known as a brilliant surgeon with many contributions to the treatment of cardiac diseases, such as the [[Tetralogy of Fallot]] and [[Ebstein's anomaly]]. He was promoted to Professor of Surgical Science in the Department of Surgery at the University of Cape Town in 1972. In 1981, Barnard became a founding member of the [[World Cultural Council]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Us |url=http://www.consejoculturalmundial.org/about-us/ |access-date=8 November 2016 |publisher=[[World Cultural Council]]}}</ref> Among the recognition he received over the years, he was named [[Emeritus|Professor Emeritus]] in 1984.

==Historical context==

Following the first-ever successful [[kidney transplantation|kidney transplant]] in 1953, in the United States, Barnard performed South Africa's second kidney transplant in October 1967, the first having been done in Johannesburg the previous year.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lederer |first=Susan E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JaZn25Uv6XwC&q=flesh+and+blood |title=Flesh and Blood: Organ Transplantation and Blood Transfusion in Twentieth-Century America |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-516150-2 |page=174}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moosa |first=M.R. |date=2019 |title=The state of kidney transplantation in South Africa |journal=South African Medical Journal |volume=109 |issue=4 |pages=235–240 |doi=10.7196/SAMJ.2019.v109i4.13548 |doi-broken-date=10 July 2025 |issn=2078-5135 |pmid=31084688 |s2cid=132459822 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

On 23 January 1964, [[James Hardy (surgeon)|James Hardy]] at the [[University of Mississippi Medical Center]] in [[Jackson, Mississippi|Jackson]], [[Mississippi]], performed the world's first [[Heart transplantation|heart transplant]] and world's first cardiac [[Xenotransplantation|xenotransplant]] by transplanting the heart of a chimpanzee into a desperately ill and dying man. This heart did beat in the patient's chest for approximately 60 to 90 minutes. The patient, [[Boyd Rush]], died without regaining consciousness.<ref name="JAMA-James-Hardy-June-29-1964">{{Cite journal |last1=Hardy |first1=James D. |last2=Chavez |first2=Carlos M. |last3=Kurrus |first3=Fred D. |last4=Neely |first4=William A. |last5=Eraslan |first5=Sadan |last6=Turner |first6=M. Don |last7=Fabian |first7=Leonard W. |last8=Labecki |first8=Thaddeus D. |date=29 June 1964 |title=Heart Transplantation in Man: Developmental Studies and Report of a Case |url=http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/1163619 |journal=Journal of the American Medical Association |volume=188 |issue=13 |pages=1132–1140 |doi=10.1001/jama.1964.03060390034008 |pmid=14163110|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Brief-History-Cross-Species-Transplantation-David-Cooper-2012">{{Cite journal |last=Cooper DK |year=2012 |title=A brief history of cross-species organ transplantation |journal=Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent) |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=49–57 |doi=10.1080/08998280.2012.11928783 |pmc=3246856 |pmid=22275786}}</ref><ref name="Telegraph-UK-obituary-James-Hardy-2003">{{Cite news |date=20 March 2003 |title=James Hardy |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1425080/James-Hardy.html |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |department=Obituary}}</ref><ref>''Every Second Counts'', McRae, see Ch. 7 "Mississippi Gambling", esp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Fv9dRT9TC4C&dq=%22Rush+was+in+a+comatose+state+with+only+a+faint+pulse%22&pg=PT109 pages bottom 122 through 127] which talk about the 23 January 1964, operation in which surgeon James Hardy transplanted a chimp's heart into patient Boyd Rush.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=21 February 2003 |title=James D. Hardy, 84, Dies; Paved Way for Transplants – Obituary; Biography |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/21/us/james-d-hardy-84-dies-paved-way-for-transplants.html?pagewanted=1 |access-date=24 January 2010 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr. James D. Hardy |url=https://www.umc.edu/Education/Schools/Medicine/Clinical_Science/Surgery/Dr__James_D__Hardy.asp |archive-url=https://archive.today/20160524183055/https://www.umc.edu/Education/Schools/Medicine/Clinical_Science/Surgery/Dr__James_D__Hardy.aspx |archive-date=24 May 2016 |website=University of Mississippi Medical Center}}</ref>

Barnard had experimentally transplanted forty-eight hearts into dogs, which was about a fifth the number that [[Adrian Kantrowitz]] had performed at Maimonides Medical Center in New York and about a sixth the number [[Norman Shumway]] had performed at Stanford University in California. Barnard had no dogs which had survived longer than ten days, unlike Kantrowitz and Shumway who had had dogs survive for more than a year.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McRae |first=Donald |date=25 June 2006 |title=A new heart, a new era |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/jun/26/health.southafrica |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref><ref>''Every Second Counts'', McRae, page 190.</ref><ref name="Daily_I">{{Cite news |date=29 November 1987 |title=Memories of the Heart |work=Daily Intelligencer |location=Doylestown, Pennsylvania |page=A-18}}</ref>

With the availability of new breakthroughs introduced by several pioneers, also including [[Richard Lower (surgeon)|Richard Lower]] at the Medical College of Virginia, several surgical teams were in a position to prepare for a human heart transplant.<ref name="mcrae2006" /><ref name="Adrian-Kantrowitz-Papers">{{Cite web |date=12 March 2019 |title=The Adrian Kantrowitz Papers, Replacing Hearts: Left Ventricle Assist Devices and Transplants, 1960–1970 |url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/GN/p-nid/315 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110624091730/http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/GN/p-nid/315 |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 June 2011 |website=U.S. National Library of Medicine |publisher=National Institutes of Health |quote=...Two Stanford surgeons, Norman Shumway and Richard Lower, had started transplanting dog hearts while experimenting with hypothermia during the late 1950s...}}</ref> Barnard had a patient willing to undergo the procedure, but as with other surgeons, he needed a suitable donor.<ref name="mcrae2006" /><ref name="Daily_I" />

During the [[Apartheid]] era in South Africa, non-white persons and citizens were not given equal opportunities in the medical professions. At [[Groote Schuur Hospital]], [[Hamilton Naki]] was an informally taught surgeon. He started out as a gardener and cleaner. One day he was asked to help out with an experiment on a giraffe. From this modest beginning, Naki became principal lab technician and taught hundreds<ref name="NYT 2009">{{Cite news |last=Wines |first=Michael |date=27 August 2005 |title=Accounts of South African's Career Now Seen as Overstated |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/27/world/africa/accounts-of-south-africans-career-now-seen-as-overstated.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref> of surgeons, and assisted with Barnard's organ transplant program. Barnard said, "Hamilton Naki had better technical skills than I did. He was a better craftsman than me, especially when it came to stitching, and had very good hands in the theatre". A popular myth, propagated principally by a widely [[Hamilton Naki|discredited]] documentary film called ''Hidden Heart''<ref>{{Cite news |last=McKay |first=R. |date=1 September 2009 |title=Heart movie skips a beat |work=Times Live |location=South Africa}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Berger |first=S. |date=4 June 2009 |title=Inspiring tale dismissed as 'rubbish' |work=The National |location=Abu Dhabi}}</ref><ref>October A. Dokkie 'verdraai' Barnard-verhaal.{{full citation needed|date=July 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=ABRAHAMS |first=JOHANN |date=2 June 2009 |title=THE HAMILTON NAKI STORY |url=http://www.sabcnews.co.za/SABCnews.com/Documents/SpecialAssignment/HEART-SCRIPT.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010408/http://www.sabcnews.co.za/SABCnews.com/Documents/SpecialAssignment/HEART-SCRIPT.pdf |archive-date=23 July 2011 |website=sabcnews.co.za}}</ref> and an erroneous [[The Guardian Newspaper|newspaper article]],<ref name="NYT 2009" /> maintains incorrectly that [[Hamilton Naki|Naki]] was present during the Washkansky transplant.<ref name="NYT 2009" /><ref name="Guardian-David-Smith-May-2009">{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=David |date=31 May 2009 |title=Film on black surgeon in first heart transplant team rekindles controversy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/31/black-surgeon-first-heart-transplant |work=[[The Guardian]]}} Refers to documentary film ''Hidden Heart'' about Hamilton Naki.</ref>

==First human-to-human heart transplant==
Barnard performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation in the early morning hours of Sunday 3 December 1967.<ref name="S-Afr-Med-J-Barnard's-first-heart-transplant">''S Afr Med J'', "[http://www.grandroundsjournal.com/articles/gr049002/grhist-001-barnard.pdf A human cardiac transplant: an interim report of a successful operation performed at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town]", Barnard CN, 30 December 1967; ''41''(48): 1271–74.</ref><ref name=New-York-Times-2001-obituary-Christiaan-Barnard/><ref name="Los-Angeles-Times-Jill-Gottesman-March-1988">[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-03-20-tm-1895-story.html Milestones in Cardiac Care], ''Los Angeles Times'', Jill Gottesman, 20 March 1988.</ref> [[Louis Washkansky]], a 54-year-old grocer who was suffering from [[Diabetes mellitus|diabetes]] and incurable [[Cardiovascular disease|heart disease]], was the patient.<ref name="Science-Museum-patient-Louis-Washkansky">[http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/louiswashkansky Louis Washkansky (1913–1967)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404034534/http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/louiswashkansky |date=4 April 2017 }}, Science Museum. Louis was born in Lithuania in 1913 and moved to South Africa in 1922.</ref><ref name="This Day in Jewish History">[https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/this-day-in-jewish-history/.premium-1.561467 1967: First Heart Transplant Patient Goes Under the Knife], ''Haaretz'', This Day in Jewish History, David B. Green, 3 December 2013. ".. When he was 9, his mother took him [Louis Washkansky] and his three siblings to Cape Town, to join their father, who had come ahead of the family .."</ref> Barnard was assisted by his brother Marius Barnard, as well as a team of thirty staff members. The operation lasted approximately five hours.<ref name="Daily_I" /><ref name="This Day in Jewish History" /><ref>''Every Second Counts'', McRae, 2006, pages 191–96.</ref><ref name="South African History Online">[http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/christiaan-neethling-barnard Christiaan Neethling Barnard], South African History Online, updated 11 January 2017.</ref>

Barnard stated to Washkansky and his wife Ann Washkansky that the transplant had an 80% chance of success.<ref name="Calculated-Risks-Gerd-Gigerenzer-2002">[https://books.google.com/books?id=10yfCgAAQBAJ&dq=%22calculated+risks%22+Barnard+Washkansky&pg=PA27 Calculated Risks: How to Know When Numbers Deceive You], Gerd Gigerenzer, Simon & Schuster, 2002.</ref><ref name="Barnard stating to Mr. and Mrs. Washkansky 80% of success, in Every Second Counts, by Donald McRae">''Every Second Counts'', McRae, pages 176, 190.</ref><ref name="Ethics of Scientific Research, by Shrader-Frechette, 1994">[https://books.google.com/books?id=PbgzAAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Barnard%27s+failure+to+tell+Washkansky%27s+wife+that+her+husband+was+dying%22&pg=PA38 Ethics of Scientific Research], Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Rowman & Littlefield, 1994, page 38. Along a similar line, this author states, "Barnard's failure to tell Washkansky's wife that her husband was dying," although it's not clear whether this was pre- or post-transplant.</ref> This has been criticised by the ethicists [[Peter Singer]] and [[Helga Kuhse]] as making claims for chances of success to the patient and family which were "unfounded" and "misleading".<ref name="Companion-To-Bioethics-Second-Edition-2012">[https://books.google.com/books?id=_e03TWSl1OIC&dq=%22Barnard+gave+Washkansky+an+unfounded+and+misleading+assurance%22&pg=PT542 A Companion to Bioethics, Second Edition], Helga Kuhse, Peter Singer, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.</ref>

Barnard later wrote, "For a dying man it is not a difficult decision because he knows he is at the end. If a lion chases you to the bank of a river filled with crocodiles, you will leap into the water, convinced you have a chance to swim to the other side." The donor heart came from a young woman, [[Denise Darvall]], who had been rendered brain dead in an accident on 2 December 1967, while crossing a street in Cape Town.<ref name="mcrae2006" /> On examination at Groote Schuur hospital, Darvall had two serious fractures in her skull, with no electrical activity in her brain detected, and no sign of pain when ice water was poured into her ear.<ref>''Every Second Counts'', McRae, 2006, p. 188.</ref> Coert Venter and Bertie Bosman requested permission from Darvall's father for Denise's heart to be used in the transplant attempt.<ref>''Every Second Counts'', McRae, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nBYTCwAAQBAJ&dq=%22He+was+still+in+a+daze+when+Coert+Venter+knocked+gently%22&pg=PA189 page 189], "Coert Venter .. [and] Bertie Bosman .. withdrew, stressing that he should take as long as he needed to consider their request. They would understand if he declined to give his consent." Edward Darvall took four minutes to reach his decision, mainly thinking about his daughter, including how she tried to help others. He then told the doctors, "If you can't save my daughter, you must try and save this man."</ref> The afternoon before his first transplant, Barnard dozed at his home while listening to music. When he awoke, he decided to modify Shumway and Lower's technique. Instead of cutting straight across the back of the atrial chambers of the donor heart, he would avoid damage to the septum and instead cut two small holes for the venae cavae and pulmonary veins.<ref>''Every Second Counts'', McRae, 2006, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Fv9dRT9TC4C&dq=%22Barnard+eventually+became+drowsy+and+he+drifted+in+and+out+of+sleep%22&pg=PT162 page 187].</ref> Prior to the transplant, rather than wait for Darvall's heart to stop beating, at his brother Marius Barnard's urging, Christiaan had injected potassium into her heart to paralyse it and render her technically dead by the whole-body standard.<ref name="mcrae2006" /> Twenty years later, Marius Barnard recounted, "Chris stood there for a few moments, watching, then stood back and said, 'It works.'"<ref name="mcrae2006" /><ref name="Daily_I" />

Washkansky survived the operation and lived for 18 days; he died from [[pneumonia]], possibly due to the [[immunosuppressive drug]]s he was taking.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=22 December 1967 |title=Surgery: Progress, Then a Setback |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,899915,00.html |access-date=1 May 2022 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X}}</ref>

==Additional heart transplants==
Barnard and his patient received worldwide publicity.<ref name="Organ Donation, GlobalViewpoints, Margaret Haerens editor, 2013">[https://books.google.com/books?id=8IRmDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22The+amount+of+publicity+generated+by+the+first+heart+transplant+was+extensive.++Critics+viewed%22&pg=PA18 Organ Donation], GlobalViewpoints, Margaret Haerens editor, Detroit, New York, San Francisco, New Haven, Conn., Waterville, Maine, U.S.; London, England, UK: Greenhaven Press, 2013.</ref><ref name="Every Second Counts, regarding international publicity of Barnard's first heart transplant, esp. pages 207 and 208">''Every Second Counts'', McRae, see [https://books.google.com/books?id=nBYTCwAAQBAJ&dq=%22On+Monday+morning%2C+as+international+news+teams+flocked+to+Cape+Town%2C+the+BBC+and+CBS+leading+the+first+requests+for+exclusive+interviews%22&pg=PA207 page 207] and, regarding publicity in the Soviet Union, [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Fv9dRT9TC4C&dq=%22In+Moscow%2C+Pravda+gave+over+its+front+page+to+the+news+and+suggested+to+its+readers+that+in+spite+of+South+Africa%27s+backward+place%22&pg=PT180 pages 208–09] in which ''Pravda'' states, "in spite of South Africa's backward place in the community of nations, positive, creative forces seem to thrive there, as proven by the immense feat of Dr. Chris Barnard."</ref> A 2017 BBC retrospective article described the occasion as one where "Journalists and film crews flooded into Cape Town's Groote Schuur Hospital, soon making Barnard and Washkansky household names." Barnard himself was described as "charismatic" and "photogenic" while initial reports labeled the operation as "successful" despite the death of Washkansky 18 days later.<ref name="The operation that took medicine into the media age, BBC, 2017">[https://www.bbc.com/news/health-42170023 The operation that took medicine into the media age], BBC, Ayesha Nathoo (Centre for Medical History, University of Exeter), 3 December 2017. The photo caption incorrectly states [[Louis Washkansky]] was the first heart transplant recipient, when in actuality he was second. [[Boyd Rush]] with physician James D. Hardy was the first person to receive a heart transplant in 1964.</ref>

Worldwide, approximately 100 transplants were performed by various doctors during 1968.<ref>[http://dspace.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/1880/48963/1/2009_HMD_Elzinga.pdf Major Medical Milestones Leading Up to the FirstHuman Heart Transplantation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160714140947/http://dspace.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/1880/48963/1/2009_HMD_Elzinga.pdf |date=14 July 2016 }}, Kate Elzinga, from ''Proceedings of the 18th Annual History of Medicine Days Conference 2009: The University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine, Alberta, Canada'', Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011. ".. following Barnard's landmark heart transplantation on December 3, 1967, 107 human heart transplants were performed by 64 surgical teams in 24 countries in 1968. . "</ref> However, only a third of these patients lived longer than three months. Many medical centers stopped performing transplants. In fact, a US [[National Institutes of Health]] publication states, "Within several years, only Shumway's team at Stanford was attempting transplants."<ref name="Adrian-Kantrowitz-Papers" />

Barnard's second transplant operation was conducted on 2 January 1968, and the patient, [[Philip Blaiberg]], survived for 19 months.<ref name=New-York-Times-2001-obituary-Christiaan-Barnard/><ref name="Chicago-Tribune-Philip-Blaiberg-1968">[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1969/10/12/page/254/article/philip-blaiberg-was-dying-this-time-for-certain Philip Blaiberg was dying—this time for certain], ''Chicago Tribune'', Mrs. Philip Blaiberg, 12 October 1969, page 68.</ref> Blaiberg's heart was donated by Clive Haupt, a 24-year-old black man who suffered a stroke, inciting controversy (especially in the African-American press) during the time of South African apartheid.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Koretzky |first=Maya Overby |date=2016 |title='A Change of Heart': Racial Politics, Scientific Metaphor and Coverage of 1968 Interracial Heart Transplants in the African American Press |journal=Social History of Medicine |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=408–428 |doi=10.1093/shm/hkw052 |pmc=5914447 |pmid=29713117}}</ref> Dirk van Zyl, who received a new heart in 1971, was the longest-lived recipient, surviving over 23 years.<ref>{{Cite news |date=7 July 1994 |title=Dirk van Zyl, 68; Had '71 Transplant |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/07/obituaries/dirk-van-zyl-68-had-71-transplant.html |access-date=28 March 2009 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

Between December 1967 and November 1974 at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, ten heart transplants were performed, as well as a heart and lung transplant in 1971. Of these ten patients, four lived longer than 18 months, with two of these four becoming long-term survivors. One patient, [[Dorothy Fischer]], lived for over thirteen years and another for over twenty-four years.<ref name="South-African-Medical-Journal-2012">[http://www.samj.org.za/index.php/samj/article/view/5020/4123 Transplantation of the heart: An overview of 40 years' clinical and research experience at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town], ''South African Medical Journal'', "Part I. Surgical experience and clinical studies." J Hassoulas, Vol. 102, No. 6 (2012).</ref>

Full recovery of donor heart function often takes place over hours or days, during which time considerable damage can occur. Other deaths to patients can occur from preexisting conditions. For example, in pulmonary hypertension the patient's right ventricle has often adapted to the higher pressure over time and, although diseased and hypertrophied, is often capable of maintaining circulation to the lungs. Barnard designed the idea of the heterotopic (or "piggy back" transplant) in which the patient's diseased heart is left in place while the donor heart is added, essentially forming a "double heart". Barnard performed the first such heterotopic heart transplant in 1974.<ref name="South-African-Medical-Journal-2012" /><ref name="Postgrad-Medical-Journal-2016">[http://pmj.bmj.com/content/early/2016/07/27/postgradmedj-2016-134309.extract "A tale of two hearts"], ''Postgrad Medical Journal'', 27 July 2016. "... HHT [Heterotopic Heart Transplantation] involves transplanting the donor heart without removing the recipient heart, effectively forming a 'double heart'. It was widely used in the pre-cyclosporine era when the donor was not strong enough (eg, the recipient had a much larger body) or the recipient had pre-existing pulmonary hypertension. Christiaan Barnard performed the first HHT ('piggy back' transplant) in 1974 ..."</ref>

From November 1974 through December 1983, 49 consecutive heterotopic heart transplants on 43 patients were performed at Groote Schuur. The survival rate for patients at one year was over 60%, as compared to less than 40% with standard transplants, and the survival rate at five years was over 36% as compared to less than 20% with standard transplants.<ref name="South-African-Medical-Journal-2012" />

Many surgeons gave up cardiac transplantation due to poor results, often due to [[Transplant rejection|rejection of the transplanted heart]] by the patient's immune system. Barnard persisted until the advent of [[ciclosporin|cyclosporine]], an effective immunosuppressive drug, which helped revive the operation throughout the world. He also attempted [[xenotransplantation]] in two human patients, utilizing a baboon heart and chimpanzee heart, respectively.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Barnard |first1=C.N. |last2=Wolpowitz |first2=A. |last3=Losman |first3=J.G. |date=1 December 1977 |title=Heterotopic cardiac transplantation with a xenograft for assistance of the left heart in cardiogenic shock after cardiopulmonary bypass |journal=South African Medical Journal |volume=52 |issue=26 |pages=1035–1038 |pmid=416502 |hdl=10520/AJA20785135_18333}}</ref>

==Public life==
[[File:Christiaan Barnard 1968.jpg|thumb|upright|Barnard in 1968]]

Barnard was an outspoken opponent of South Africa's laws of apartheid, and was not afraid to criticise his nation's government, although he had to temper his remarks to some extent to travel abroad.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}} Rather than leaving his homeland, he used his fame to campaign for a change in the law. Christiaan's brother, [[Marius Barnard (surgeon)|Marius Barnard]], went into politics, and was elected to the [[Parliament of South Africa|legislature]] from the [[Progressive Federal Party]]. Barnard later stated that the reason he never won the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] was probably because he was a "[[white South African]]".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Barnard |first=Christiaan |date=1–14 November 1997 |title='It's the quality of survival that's important' |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1422/14220850.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711210948/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1422/14220850.htm |archive-date=11 July 2007 |work=Frontline: India's National Magazine |volume=14 |issue=22}}</ref>

Shortly before his visit to Kenya in 1978, the following was written about his views regarding race relations in South Africa;
"While he believes in the participation of Africans in the political process of South Africa, he is opposed to a one-man-one-vote system in South Africa".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hilary |first=Ng'weno |date=5 May 1978 |title=Dr. Christiaan Barnard Visit to Kenya |journal=The Weekly Review |pages=13}}</ref>

In answering a hypothetical question on how he would solve the race problem were he a "benevolent dictator in South Africa", Barnard stated the following in a long interview at the Weekly Review:<ref name="Hilary 16–17">{{Cite journal |last=Hilary |first=Ng'weno |date=19 May 1978 |title=I Would Split South Africa Into Two Parts – Equitably |journal=The Weekly Review |pages=16–17}}</ref>
* While "I would abolish Social discrimination", political discrimination would continue.<ref name="Hilary 16–17" /> 
* He favoured the total division of the country along racial lines. His words were; "I somehow feel ... but we may have to divide South Africa into two equal divisions". In a follow-up question about where the coloured people would end up in that scenario, he replied that 'I would include them in the white South Africa".<ref name="Hilary 16–17" />
* That coloured people have "always been accepted" among whites.<ref name="Hilary 16–17" />
* That "the black man will not accept this view" of universal suffrage.<ref name="Hilary 16–17" />
* That "we are still out of the Olympic games" despite the fact that "in the field of sports where we have virtually integrated completely."<ref name="Hilary 16–17" />
* Regarding the [[Soweto uprising]], he claimed "there was ... a lot of external stirring up of turbulence". Regarding the anger from the black population when [[Steve Biko]] was murdered, he said that "I think that something like $50,000 came in from outside to work up feelings at that funeral."<ref name="Hilary 16–17" />
* He stated that the National Party members were as upset about Biko's murder as were blacks; "The white community was thoroughly upset, let me tell you. The nationalists themselves were very upset."<ref name="Hilary 16–17" />

The interview ended with the following summary from he himself;
"I often say that, like [[King Lear]], South Africa is a country more sinned against than sinning."<ref name="Hilary 16–17" />

==Personal life==
Barnard's first marriage was to Aletta Gertruida Louw, a nurse, whom he married in 1948 while practising medicine in [[Ceres, Western Cape|Ceres]]. The couple had two children: Deirdre (born 1950) and Andre (1951–1984).<ref name="mcrae2006" /><ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20090612234553/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/christiaan-barnard-celebrated-pioneer-of-heart-transplant-surgery-dies-aged-78-667863.html Christiaan Barnard, celebrated pioneer of heart transplant surgery, dies aged 78]", ''The Independent'', 3 September 2001. Retrieved 18 September 2010.</ref> International fame took a toll on his family, and in 1969, Barnard and his wife divorced. In 1970, he married heiress Barbara Zoellner when she was 19, the same age as his son, and they had two children: Frederick (born 1972) and Christiaan Jr. (born 1974).<ref name="cbarnardbio">{{Cite web |title=Christiaan Barnard Biography |url=http://www.allsands.com/entertainment/people/christiaanbarna_aoi_gn.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090523102543/http://www.allsands.com/entertainment/people/christiaanbarna_aoi_gn.htm |archive-date=23 May 2009 |access-date=10 June 2009}}</ref> He divorced Zoellner in 1982.<ref name=cbarnardbio/> Barnard married for a third time in 1988 to Karin Setzkorn, a young model.<ref name=cbarnardbio/> They also had two children, Armin (born 1989) and Lara (born 1997). This last marriage also ended in divorce in 2000.<ref name=cbarnardbio/>

Barnard described in his autobiography ''The Second Life'' a one-night extramarital affair with Italian film star [[Gina Lollobrigida]],<ref name="mcrae2006" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Barnard |first=Chris |title=Druhý dech |date=1994 |publisher=Lidové noviny |isbn=80-7106-096-8 |location=Prague |pages=70–71 |language=cs |trans-title=The Second Life}}</ref><!-- Czech translation of The Second Life --> that occurred in January 1968. During that visit to Rome he received an audience from [[Pope Paul VI]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=30 January 1968 |title=Pope Tells Barnard Of 'Heart' Prayers |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19680130&id=sLcpAAAAIBAJ&pg=5795,4863293&hl=cs |access-date=8 October 2016 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |location=Pittsburgh}}</ref><!-- article via Google news with image of Barnard and Lollobrigida -->

In October 2016, US Congresswoman [[Ann McLane Kuster]] stated that Barnard sexually assaulted her when she was 23 years old. According to Kuster, Barnard attempted to grope her under her skirt while she was seated at a business luncheon with US Representative [[Pete McCloskey]], for whom she worked at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 October 2016 |title=Trump comments prompt congresswoman to share assault story |url=http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20161013/news/310139819/ |agency=Associated Press}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=13 October 2016 |title=Rep. Annie Kuster tells Concord Monitor famous doctor sexually assaulted her decades ago |url=http://www.nh1.com/news/rep-annie-kuster-tells-concord-monitor-famous-doctor-sexually-assaulted-her-decades-ago/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161017230458/http://www.nh1.com/news/rep-annie-kuster-tells-concord-monitor-famous-doctor-sexually-assaulted-her-decades-ago/ |archive-date=17 October 2016 |access-date=13 October 2016 |website=NH1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Trump comments prompt congresswoman to share assault story |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2016-10-13/trump-comments-prompt-congresswoman-to-share-assault-story |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161014060432/http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2016-10-13/trump-comments-prompt-congresswoman-to-share-assault-story |archive-date=14 October 2016}}</ref>

==Retirement==
Barnard retired as Head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Cape Town in 1983 after developing [[rheumatoid arthritis]] in his hands which ended his surgical career. He had struggled with arthritis since 1956, when it was diagnosed during his postgraduate work in the United States.<ref name="mcrae2006" /> After retirement, he spent two years as the Scientist-In-Residence at the Oklahoma Transplantation Institute in the United States and as an acting consultant for various institutions.<ref name="massad">{{Cite journal |last=Massad |first=Malek G. |date=January 2002 |title=Christiaan Neethling Barnard (1922–2001) |journal=The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery |volume=123 |issue=1 |pages=1–2 |doi=10.1067/mtc.2002.121042 |pmid=11782747 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=3 September 2001 |title=Heart Surgeon Christiaan Barnard Dies |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2001/09/03/heart-surgeon-christiaan-barnard-dies/82ab4aae-4854-462e-96b3-dbf042ecadf4/ |access-date=16 March 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>

He had by this time become very interested in anti-aging research, and his reputation suffered in 1986 when he promoted ''[[Glycel]]'', an expensive "anti-aging" skin cream, whose approval was withdrawn by the United States [[Food and Drug Administration]] soon thereafter.<ref name="New-York-Times-2001-obituary-Christiaan-Barnard">{{Cite news |last=Altman |first=Lawrence K. |date=3 September 2001 |title=Christiaan Barnard, 78, Surgeon For First Heart Transplant, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/03/world/christiaan-barnard-78-surgeon-for-first-heart-transplant-dies.html |access-date=30 January 2017 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> He also spent time as a research advisor to the Clinique la Prairie, in [[Switzerland]], where the controversial "rejuvenation therapy" was practised.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cooper |first=David K. C. |date=3 September 2001 |title=Obituary: Christiaan Barnard |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/sep/03/guardianobituaries.medicalscience |access-date=2 December 2013 |work=The Guardian}}</ref>

Barnard divided the remainder of his years between [[Austria]], where he established the [[Christiaan Barnard Foundation]], dedicated to helping underprivileged children throughout the world, and his game farm in Beaufort West, South Africa.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Foundation – Christiaan Barnard Heart Foundation |url=http://cbheartfoundation.com/the-foundation/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127034052/http://cbheartfoundation.com/the-foundation/ |archive-date=27 November 2018 |access-date=26 November 2018 |work=Christiaan Barnard Heart Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=The First Transplant Surgeon |date=13 September 2016 |pages=165–187 |chapter=Heart and Blood Vessel Surgery |publisher=WORLD SCIENTIFIC |doi=10.1142/9789814699389_0007 |isbn=9789814699365}}</ref> In his later years, he had [[Basal-cell carcinoma]] (skin cancer) on his face, for which he was treated in [[Parow, Western Cape|Parow]], South Africa.<ref name="massad" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cooper |first=D. K. |year=2018 |title=Christiaan Barnard—The surgeon who dared: The story of the first human-to-human heart transplant |journal=Global Cardiology Science & Practice |volume=2018 |issue=2 |page=11 |doi=10.21542/gcsp.2018.11 |pmc=6062759 |pmid=30083541}}</ref>

==Death==
[[File:Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital.jpg|thumb|upright|Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital in Cape Town]]

Christiaan Barnard died on 2 September 2001, while on holiday in [[Paphos]], Cyprus. Early reports stated that he had died of a heart attack, but an [[autopsy]] showed his death was caused by a severe [[asthma]] attack.<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 September 2001 |title=Autopsy confirms asthma killed Barnard |url=http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main_old.php?id=4655&archive=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927202905/http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main_old.php?id=4655&archive=1 <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=27 September 2007 |access-date=15 March 2007 |work=[[Cyprus Mail]]}}</ref>

==Books==
Barnard wrote two autobiographies. His first book, ''One Life'', was published in 1969 ({{ISBN|0245599525}}) and sold copies worldwide. Some of the proceeds were used to set up the Chris Barnard Fund for research into heart disease and heart transplants in Cape Town.<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Brink JG, Hassoulas J |year=2009 |title=The first human heart transplant and further advances in cardiac transplantation at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town – with reference to : the operation. A human cardiac transplant : an interim report of a successful operation performed at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town |journal=Cardiovasc J Afr |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=31–5 |pmc=4200566 |pmid=19287813}}</ref> His second autobiography, ''The Second Life'', was published in 1993, eight years before his death ({{ISBN|0947461388}}).

Apart from his autobiographies, Barnard wrote books including:
*''The Donor''
*''Your Healthy Heart''
*''In the 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''

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Medicine|South Africa}}

* [[René Favaloro]]
* [[Bartley P. Griffith]]
* [[Pierre Grondin]]
* [[Hamilton Naki]]
* [[Geoffrey Tovey]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MVZDDwAAQBAJ |title=Christiaan Barnard: The Surgeon Who Dared |publisher=Fonthill Media |year=2017 |isbn=9781781556399 |location=Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK}}
* {{Cite book |last=Logan |first=Chris |title=Celebrity Surgeon: Christiaan Barnard: A Life |publisher=Jonathan Ball |year=2003 |isbn=978-1868421633 |location=Johannesburg}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}

* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1121917/ Christiaan Barnard: his first transplants and their impact on concepts of death]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111001054057/http://www.heart-transplant.co.uk/barnard.html To Transplant and Beyond : First Human Heart Transplant]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061217194135/http://www.ctsnet.org/doc/6272 In Memoriam : Christiaan Neethling Barnard]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120206092146/http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2007/07113014151003.htm 40th anniversary of first human heart transplant]
* [http://www.heartofcapetown.co.za Official Heart Transplant Museum – Heart Of Cape Town]

{{Founding members of the World Cultural Council}}
{{Organ transplantation}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnard, Christiaan}}
[[Category:1922 births]]
[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century South African physicians]]
[[Category:20th-century surgeons]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Cape Town]]
[[Category:Afrikaner people]]
[[Category:Deaths from asthma]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Cyprus]]
[[Category:Founding members of the World Cultural Council]]
[[Category:People from Beaufort West]]
[[Category:South African cardiac surgeons]]
[[Category:South African expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:South African transplant surgeons]]
[[Category:University of Cape Town alumni]]
[[Category:University of Minnesota alumni]]