World’s first heart transplant surgery performed

World’s first heart transplant surgery performed cover image
  1. Home
  2. Events
  3. Events on 3 December
  4. World’s first heart transplant surgery performed

3 December, 1967

The world’s first heart transplant surgery was performed on 3rd December 1967 by Dr. Christiaan Barnard, a South-African surgeon. The operation carried out at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.

The heart of Denise Darvall, a young woman of 25 years who had died a day before in a fatal accident, was transplanted to Louis Washkansky, a 54-year old grocer who had been suffering from diabetes and an incurable heart disease. The operation was successful, but Washkansky died 18 days later due to pneumonia which had made its onset because of the immunosuppressive drugs the he had been taking.

This important milestone in medical history inspired Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz and his team to undertake the world’s first paediatric heart transplant at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn just three days later.