The surgeon who made the first heart transplant dies.

2001/09/03 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Medikuntza

Christiaan Barnard, a prestigious surgeon who for the first time in the world underwent a heart transplant, died on Saturday in Paphos at 78. This surgeon, raised in South Africa, became famous from day to day when, in 1964, he replaced Louis Washakansky with his poor heart by the heart of a 25-year-old girl who died in a motor accident. "I never told the hospital address what we had to do," Barnard explained. The man died 18 days after surgery for pneumonia, due to the weakness of his immune system. However, this operation gave him great fame globally and the satisfaction of having followed his work with enthusiasm, but with fear of the co-workers.

Young, beautiful and mujeriega, Barnard was never the usual surgeon. It also had the collaboration of Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida. On the other hand, he acknowledged the application of passive euthanasia to terminal patients and had discrepancies with the South African government for the actions of apartheid.

However, Barnard never stopped working and, in addition to developing new techniques in heart transplants, he wrote several scientific books and novels.