Barnard, Christiaan (Neethling)

(born Nov. 8, 1922, Beaufort West, S.Af.—died Sept. 2, 2001, Paphos, Cyprus) South African surgeon. He showed that intestinal atresia is caused by deficient fetal blood supply, which led to development of a surgical procedure to correct the formerly fatal defect. He introduced open-heart surgery to South Africa, designed a new artificial heart valve, and did animal heart transplant experiments. In 1967 Barnard's team performed the first human heart transplant, replacing the heart of Louis Washkansky with one from an accident victim. The transplant was successful, but Washkansky, given immunosuppressant drugs to prevent rejection of the heart, died 18 days later from pneumonia.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica