History Of Invention
Gladys Ventura & Jazmin Rivas
Mrs. Boyd
History 10 H
23 October 2014
Brief History of Heart Transplants
A heart transplant is a surgical procedure performed on patients with any type of heart failure. Heart transplants date back to the early 1900s. In 1967, the first human heart transplant was performed by a South African surgeon, Dr. Christiaan Barnard. Barnard performed the first transplant on Louis Washkansky who was dying of heart damage. This was performed on
December 3, 1967 at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.
The first heart transplant recipients survived only a span of eighteen days after the operation was completed. Many problems contributed to this short survival time. There were problems in the surgical procedure. Infection often occurred after surgery and there were no effective medications to help prevent the body from rejecting the new organ. Many patients were dying soon after, the number of heart transplants increasingly dropped.
The first animal transplant is credited to be Vladimir Demikhov. While working in
Moscow, Vladimir experimented and switched the hearts of two dogs. The dogs survived. Also in 1984, in Loma Linda, California, Leonard Bailey, MD, implanted a baboon heart into a
12dayold girl who became known as Baby Fae. She survived for twenty days as the most famous recipient of a crossspecie heart transplant.
Throughout the decade of the 1980s and into the 90s, physicians continue to refine techniques for balancing dosages of medications to protect the new heart from infection and
becoming rejected. Today's surgical techniques and procedures are more advanced. The creation of newer and better medication that protects hearts from infection, and the use of heart surveillance to identify rejection have resulted in better survival rates.
Dr. Barnard and his surgical team performing the world’s first heart transplant on 55 year old,
Louis Washkansky.
Mrs. Boyd
History 10 H
23 October 2014
Brief History of Heart Transplants
A heart transplant is a surgical procedure performed on patients with any type of heart failure. Heart transplants date back to the early 1900s. In 1967, the first human heart transplant was performed by a South African surgeon, Dr. Christiaan Barnard. Barnard performed the first transplant on Louis Washkansky who was dying of heart damage. This was performed on
December 3, 1967 at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.
The first heart transplant recipients survived only a span of eighteen days after the operation was completed. Many problems contributed to this short survival time. There were problems in the surgical procedure. Infection often occurred after surgery and there were no effective medications to help prevent the body from rejecting the new organ. Many patients were dying soon after, the number of heart transplants increasingly dropped.
The first animal transplant is credited to be Vladimir Demikhov. While working in
Moscow, Vladimir experimented and switched the hearts of two dogs. The dogs survived. Also in 1984, in Loma Linda, California, Leonard Bailey, MD, implanted a baboon heart into a
12dayold girl who became known as Baby Fae. She survived for twenty days as the most famous recipient of a crossspecie heart transplant.
Throughout the decade of the 1980s and into the 90s, physicians continue to refine techniques for balancing dosages of medications to protect the new heart from infection and
becoming rejected. Today's surgical techniques and procedures are more advanced. The creation of newer and better medication that protects hearts from infection, and the use of heart surveillance to identify rejection have resulted in better survival rates.
Dr. Barnard and his surgical team performing the world’s first heart transplant on 55 year old,
Louis Washkansky.