Cape Town is home to the first heart Transplant in the world. It was performed on Dec 3, 1967 by Dr Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schur (where I’m doing my research). A woman by the name of Denise Durvall (25) was crossing the street w/ her mom when the two were struck by drunk driver. Her mom died instantly, while Denise was left brain dead. Up until then, the world was afraid to perform a heart transplant. The rules in CT were that to obtain a heart the patient must first be declared dead. Dr Barnard worked around this by declaring brain dead and since then the definition of “death” has been revised. This can mostly be found on Wiki, but it was interesting the way Dr Barnard described the operation. He said it was the first time he ever saw a chest w/o a heart. He looked down and he knew he had to continue. He felt alone b/c there was no one he could turn to and ask whether or not he was doing the right thing. It took three shocks to the heart before it started beating (it was in v-fib). It was a success, but unfortunately 18 days later the patient (Louis Washkansky) died of pneumonia. When he declined, they treated him for rejection only. Diabetes was a common side effect of transplant patients b/c they used primarily steroids back then to immunosurpress.

The tour was cool, and I got to see the original theaters where the surgery took place. They have wax sculptures reenacting the operations. There’s also a was dog w/ his chest open. Back in the day they would perform heart transplants on them (usually dogs that were scheduled to be put to sleep anyway). John says brain surgery is gonna be his claim to fame. Bought a postcard for Alex’s bday and mailed it. Wonder if she’ll ever get it.