May 2, Heart of Cape Town Museum
The OT Abroad team visited this interactive museum that immerses visitors in the events of the first human-to-human heart transplant. South African cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard led a 30-person surgical team that successfully completed the 5-hour operation on December 3, 1967, at Cape Town’s Groote Schuur Hospital.
The donor was Denise Daravall, a young woman who was killed the day before while crossing a Cape Town street. After doctors confirmed brain death, her father granted permission for the donation. The recipient was Louis Washkansky, a 54-year-old grocer with diabetes and incurable heart disease. He lived for 18 days after the transplant.
The Heart of Cape Town Museum website notes the site “honors all those who played a major role in the surgical feat that pushed the boundaries of science, into the dawn of a new medical era, an era in which it became possible to transplant the symbol of the essence of life, our human heart.”
