Home > Science Fact Finder > Health and Medicine - Who Received The First Heart Transplant?
Health and Medicine - Who Received The First Heart Transplant?
Who received the first heart transplant?
On December 3, 1967, in Capetown, South Africa, Christiaan Barnard (1922-) and a team of 30 associates performed the world's first heart transplant. In a five-hour operation, the heart of Denise Ann Darval, age 25, an auto accident victim, was transplanted into the body of Louis Washansky, a 55-year-old wholesale grocer. Washansky lived for 18 days before dying from pneumonia.
The first heart-transplant surgery in the United States was performed just three days later, on December 6, 1967. The heart recipient was a two-week-old boy. The surgery was performed by Adrian Kantrowitz (1918 -) at Maimonides Hospital, in Brooklyn, New York. The baby died six hours after the surgery.
The first adult to receive a heart transplant in the United States was Mike Kasperak, age 54, at the Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, California. Norman Shumway performed the operation...
[The entire page is 255 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
-
Diseases And Medical Conditions
- Which disease is the most common?
- Which disease is the deadliest?
- What is the medical term for "heart attack"?
- How are the forms of cancer classified?
- What is meant by "vectors" in medicine?
- What are the symptoms and signs of AIDS?
- What is anorexia?
- Who was Typhoid Mary?
- How many people in America are estimated to have Alzheimer's disease?
- What is Lou Gehrig's disease?
- Why is Legionnaire's disease known by that name?
- What is progeria?
- How is Lyme disease carried?
- Which species of mosquito causes malaria and yellow fever in humans?
- What is the chemical composition of kidney stones?
- What is necrotizing fasciitis?
- How is the term "zoonosis" defined?
- What is the composition of cigarette smoke?
- How many types of herpes virus are there?
- What is carpal tunnel syndrome?
- What is the medical term for tennis elbow?
- What is lactose intolerance
- What is narcolepsy?
- How are burns classified?
- What causes warts?
- What is dyslexia and what causes it?
- Who were the "Blue People" in Appalachia?
- What is the phobia of number thirteen called?
-
Health Hazards
- What is the deadliest natural toxin?
- What are the leading causes of death in the United States?
- How long does it take to bleed to death?
- How does the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classify carcinogens?
- What percentage of the American public are smokers?
- What is cholesterol and why are there "good" and "bad" varieties?
- Why does the risk of cancer diminish rapidly after one quits the cigarette smoking habit?
- Can ozone be harmful to humans?
- Why is exposure to asbestos a health hazard?
- What is the estimated radiation dose to which the average person in the United States is exposed each year?
- How many people visit a dentist regularly?
- How is human exposure to radiation measured?
- Why is radon a health hazard?
- What are dust mites?
- Do electromagnetic fields produced by power transmission lines present a health hazard?
- How does the blood alcohol level affect the body and behavior?
- If the sap of the poison ivy plant touches the skin, will a rash develop?
- What safety rules should be observed during a thunderstorm?
- What name is now used as a synonym foe leprosy?
- Which sport has the highest rate of injuries and what kind of injury is most common?
- What are the leading causes of stress?
- What are the odds against being struck by lightning?
- How does jet lag affect one's body?
- How many children die from head trauma incurred while riding bicycles?
-
Doctors, Medical Treatment, And First Aid
- Who is generally regarded as the founder of medicine?
- What is the difference between homeopathy, chiropractic medicine, osteopathic medicine, and naturopathy?
- Who was the first woman physician in the United States?
- What is the Hippocratic Oath?
- What was the first medical college in the United States?
- What is the difference between an ophthalmologist, optometrist, and optician?
- Who was the first African American surgeon to perform heart surgery?
- Who received the first heart transplant?
- When was the first artificial heart used?
- Who was the first test-tube baby?
- What is the meaning of the numbers in a blood pressure reading?
- How is blood pressure measured?
- What is the instrument a doctor uses to check reflexes?
- What items should be included in a household first aid kit?
- Which first aid measures can be used for a bite by a black widow spicier?
- How can a tick be removed?
- What first aid remedies may be used for bee stings?
- What is the Heimlich maneuver?
- What is the difference between heatstroke and heat exhaustion?
-
Drugs And Medications
- How many of the medications used today are derived from plants?
- Who discovered penicillin?
- From what plant is taxol extracted?
- Why are anabolic steroids harmful?
- What is meant by the term orphan drugs?
- What were the birth defects caused by the drug Thalidomide?
- What is a controlled substance?
- Which tests detect illegal drug use?
- How long do chemicals from marijuana stay in the body?
- What are designer drugs, such as China White?
