December 3, 1967: The world's 1st heart transplant surgery is completed. Was it a success? Well, not exactly.
Christiaan Barnard was a 49-year-old heart surgeon from Cape Town, South Africa, who, since 1958, had been the head of the Department of Experimental Surgery at Groote Schuur Hospital, named for the original "Great Barn" estate laid out by Dutch settlers in Cape Town in the 17th Century.
The 1st kidney transplant had been done in 1953, and the 1st lung transplant and the 1st liver transplant were both performed in 1963. This led to the hope that a heart transplant was possible. In 1964, the 1st serious attempt at one was tried, putting the heart of a chimpanzee into a human body. But it worked for only an hour or so, and the patient died without ever regaining consciousness.
Ironically, it was in Jackson, Mississippi, a State which, like the nation of South Africa, then practiced strict racial segregation. Hamilton Naki was a black doctor who worked with Barnard, who admitted he "had better technical skills than I did." But there was no way he would be allowed to perform the 1st heart transplant in South Africa. As it turned out, he wasn't even allowed in the room when it happened.
Barnard had long experimented on dogs, getting his start with intestinal surgery on them. On 48 occasions, he performed heart transplants on dogs, but it never kept a dog alive for more than 10 days. However, Adrian Kantrowitz at Maimonides Medical Center in New York and Norman Shumway at Stanford University outside San Francisco had kept dogs alive for more than a year with heart transplants, so there was hope.
Louis Washkansky was a 54-year-old grocer, whose family had taken him out of Lithuania in the anti-Semitic Russian Empire as a boy, to South Africa. He had diabetes and incurable heart disease. When Barnard explained the possibility of transplant to him at Groote Schuur in November 1967, the idea was still so new that Washkansky's wife Ann thought that her husband might adopt personality traits of the heart's previous owner. But Louis, knowing that he would die soon without the transplant, became a willing recipient. Now, all that was needed was a suitable donor.
Once again, apartheid reared its ugly head. A young black man, whose identity has never been revealed, had died in an accident. There was some question as to whether the hospital would allow the heart of a black person to be transplanted into a white person. But the question became moot when it was found that the heart was damaged and unusable.
Denise Darvall and her mother Myrtle were killed in a car accident on December 2, 1967. Denise was only 25 years old, was taken to Groote Schuur, and hung on until 9:00 that night. Her father gave permission for her heart to be used. At 1:00 AM local time on December 3 (about 6:00 PM on December 2, U.S. Eastern Time), Louis Washkansky was anesthetized, and Dr. Christiaan Barnard led a team of 30 people, including his brother, Dr. Marius Barnard, in the surgery.
The procedure took about 6 hours. When it was over, Washkansky was alive. He regained consciousness, and even ate. On the 5th day, there were signs that his body was beginning to reject the heart. Barnard discussed it with his team, and it was agreed to give Washkansky immunosuppressants. Ultimately, the "cure" was worse than the condition: When he developed pneumonia, his immune system couldn't handle it. He died on December 21, 18 days after the surgery.
Barnard still considered the surgery a success, because the new heart was "not being stimulated by an electrical machine." On January 2, 1968, Barnard tried again, and this time, he defied his country and put the heart of a black man in the chest of a white man -- and got more grief in the country's black press than in its white press. The patient lived for 19 months.
In 1968, throughout the world, about 100 heart transplants were performed, but only about one-third of them lived longer than 3 months, which led to many hospitals that had performed them refusing to continue. Barnard would eventually attempt 59 heart transplants, with a survival rate after 5 years of 36 percent. One patient lived 23 years after the surgery, and another made it 13 years. Eventually, better immunosuppressants increased the lifespan of transplant patients, regardless of organ.
In 1982, the 1st successful artificial heart surgery was performed. As with heart transplants, this is now common, and patients live longer than ever.
Barnard developed rheumatoid arthritis in his hands, and had to stop practicing surgery in 1983. He died in 2001, of a severe asthma attack.
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December 3, 1967 was a Sunday. These games were played in the NFL:
* The New York Giants lost to the Cleveland Browns, 24-14 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Redskins played to a tie, 35-35 at District of Columbia Stadium. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium 2 years later.)
* The Baltimore Colts beat the Dallas Cowboys, 23-17 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.
* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Detroit Lions, 24-14 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
* The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Twins, 30-27 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the expansion New Orleans Saints, 31-20 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.
* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 20-3 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
* And the Chicago Bears beat the San Francisco 49ers, 28-14 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.
In the AFL:
* The New York Jets beat the Boston Patriots, 29-24 at Fenway Park in Boston. The Patriots moved to suburban Foxborough, Massachusetts in 1971, and took on the New England Patriots name.
* The Denver Broncos beat the Buffalo Bills, 21-20 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.
* The San Diego Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 17-16 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
* The Oakland Raiders beat the Miami Dolphins, 31-17 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
* And the Houston Oilers had a bye.
There was 1 game played in the NBA that day. The St. Louis Hawks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 123-109 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. It was the Sonics' 1st season in the NBA, and the Hawks' last season in St. Louis. They moved to Atlanta a year later.
There were 4 games played in the American Basketball Association, which was in its 1 season:
* The Pittsburgh Pipers beat the Indiana Pacers, 103-100 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, with Connie Hawkins delivering 29 points and 22 rebounds for the eventual inaugural ABA Champions.
* The New Orleans Buccaneers beat the Kentucky Colonels, 102-94 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.
* The Houston Mavericks beat the Minnesota Muskies, 113-100 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston. Arthur Becker scored 37 points.
* And the Denver Rockets beat the Anaheim Amigos, 100-87 at the Auditorium Arena in Denver.
There were 5 games in the newly-expanded NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2 at the old Madison Square Garden, which would be replaced 2 months later.
* The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3 at the Boston Garden.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-2 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-3 at the Chicago Stadium.
* And the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Oakland Seals were not scheduled.
