One of medicine's most famous ORs now a museum
CMAJ 2000;162:1723
Thirty-three years ago, in a small South African operating theatre in what had once been a barn, an operating room team came together and changed the way medicine is practised. The team, led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard, performed the world's first heart transplant on Louis Washkansky, a 55-year-old grocer. The donor was a 25-year-old woman, Denise Darvall. Washkansky lived for 18 days after the historic operation, but died after developing pneumonia; his new heart beat strongly until the end.
Today, the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, where Barnard performed that first human heart transplant after perfecting his technique on dogs and baboons, is a thriving facility that treats patients from South Africa and beyond. The site originally became home to South Africa's first medical school in 1912, with the hospital opening 26 years later.
Today, the operating theatre where Barnard and his team worked has been transformed into a museum, where visitors can transport themselves back to Dec. 3, 1967, when the operation was performed.
Barnard, who recently announced that he is leaving South Africa after 77 years, did not believe in putting patients through treatments that were not going to make them feel better. "The prime goal," he said, "is to alleviate suffering, and not to prolong life. And if your treatment does not alleviate suffering, but only prolongs life, that treatment should be stopped." — Donalee Moulton, Cape Town
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