Dr. Christian Barnard 1922-2001

Dr. Christian Barnard, the man who was as well known in the medical world as he was in the world of the common man, died on September 2, 2001. He suffered a fatal asthma attack after going for a swim at a resort in Cyprus. He was 78. This transplant pioneer performed the first successful human heart transplant in South Africa in 1967. The University of Cape Town, where Dr. Barnard held the chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery until 1983, said in a statement, “In any review of the 20^th century and its pioneers, Professor Christian Barnard will always be amongst the handful of people who changed medicine during the century.”