Did you know that the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by an African?

Did you know that the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by an African?

Christiaan Barnard became a highly respected heart surgeon in his native South Africa. At a stage in his career he moved to the US where he worked at the University of Minnesota, before returning home to South Africa in 1958. Barnard was appointed head of the Department of Experimental Surgery at the Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town and later retired as head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Cape Town in 1983. His Christian Barnard Foundation was established to provide assistance to underprivileged children across the globe. Barnard died from an asthma attack at the age of 78 in 2001. Though the beneficiary of his first human-to-human transplant surgery lived only a few hours after the surgery, this audacious feat was the world’s first and it demonstrated to the world what was indeed possible.