Cardiac Transplantation: since the first case report
by S M Benjamin and N C Barnes, originally
accepted for publication March 1st, 2004
(Department of Respiratory Medicine,
London Chest Hospital, London, UK)
Abstract
Heart transplantation was and is still recognised
as a medical milestone. Its ability to offer a second chance
of life to people with end-stage cardiac disease is its major
triumph. Dr Christiaan Barnard’s work was instrumental
in realising the actual possibility of conducting a human transplant,
and provided the framework for further advances in this field.
He deserves due credit for conducting the first successful human
heart transplant.
Barnard’s original paper was published in the South
African Medical Journal in 1967 (Barnard CN et al. A human cardiac transplant:
an interim report of a human successful operation performed at
Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town. South African Med J 1967;
41: 1271–1274). The full article is reproduced online here,
and we are grateful to the South African Medical Journal for
permission to do this. The paper has been reproduced exactly
as it originally appeared in print; the only alteration that
has been made is to the layout.
Benjamin and Barnes article
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Christiaan Barnard's original report
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