On December 3, 1967, 53-year-old Louis Washkansky received
the first human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in
Cape Town, South Africa.

Washkansky, a South African grocer dying from chronic heart
disease, received the transplant from Denise Darvall, a 25-year-
old woman who was fatally injured in a car accident. 

The new heart recipient died eighteen days later of pneumonia,
largely brought on by the anti-rejection drugs that suppressed
his immune system.

Surgeon Christiaan Barnard, who trained at the University of Cape    
Town and in the United States, performed the revolutionary medical      
operation.

Christiaan Neethling Barnard (1922 – 2001)