Editing Christiaan Barnard (section)

==Historical context==

Following the first-ever successful [[kidney transplantation|kidney transplant]] in 1953, in the United States, Barnard performed South Africa's second kidney transplant in October 1967, the first having been done in Johannesburg the previous year.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lederer |first=Susan E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JaZn25Uv6XwC&q=flesh+and+blood |title=Flesh and Blood: Organ Transplantation and Blood Transfusion in Twentieth-Century America |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-516150-2 |page=174}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moosa |first=M.R. |date=2019 |title=The state of kidney transplantation in South Africa |journal=South African Medical Journal |volume=109 |issue=4 |pages=235–240 |doi=10.7196/SAMJ.2019.v109i4.13548 |doi-broken-date=10 November 2024 |issn=2078-5135 |pmid=31084688 |s2cid=132459822 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

On 23 January 1964, [[James Hardy (surgeon)|James Hardy]] at the [[University of Mississippi Medical Center]] in [[Jackson, Mississippi|Jackson]], [[Mississippi]], performed the world's first [[Heart transplantation|heart transplant]] and world's first cardiac [[Xenotransplantation|xenotransplant]] by transplanting the heart of a chimpanzee into a desperately ill and dying man. This heart did beat in the patient's chest for approximately 60 to 90 minutes. The patient, [[Boyd Rush]], died without regaining consciousness.<ref name="JAMA-James-Hardy-June-29-1964">{{Cite journal |last1=Hardy |first1=James D. |last2=Chavez |first2=Carlos M. |last3=Kurrus |first3=Fred D. |last4=Neely |first4=William A. |last5=Eraslan |first5=Sadan |last6=Turner |first6=M. Don |last7=Fabian |first7=Leonard W. |last8=Labecki |first8=Thaddeus D. |date=29 June 1964 |title=Heart Transplantation in Man: Developmental Studies and Report of a Case |url=http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/1163619 |journal=Journal of the American Medical Association |volume=188 |issue=13 |pages=1132–1140 |doi=10.1001/jama.1964.03060390034008 |pmid=14163110}}</ref><ref name="Brief-History-Cross-Species-Transplantation-David-Cooper-2012">{{Cite journal |last=Cooper DK |year=2012 |title=A brief history of cross-species organ transplantation |journal=Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent) |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=49–57 |doi=10.1080/08998280.2012.11928783 |pmc=3246856 |pmid=22275786}}</ref><ref name="Telegraph-UK-obituary-James-Hardy-2003">{{Cite news |date=20 March 2003 |title=James Hardy |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1425080/James-Hardy.html |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |department=Obituary}}</ref><ref>''Every Second Counts'', McRae, see Ch. 7 "Mississippi Gambling", esp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2Fv9dRT9TC4C&dq=%22Rush+was+in+a+comatose+state+with+only+a+faint+pulse%22&pg=PT109 pages bottom 122 through 127] which talk about the 23 January 1964, operation in which surgeon James Hardy transplanted a chimp's heart into patient Boyd Rush.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=21 February 2003 |title=James D. Hardy, 84, Dies; Paved Way for Transplants – Obituary; Biography |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/21/us/james-d-hardy-84-dies-paved-way-for-transplants.html?pagewanted=1 |access-date=24 January 2010 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr. James D. Hardy |url=https://www.umc.edu/Education/Schools/Medicine/Clinical_Science/Surgery/Dr__James_D__Hardy.asp |archive-url=https://archive.today/20160524183055/https://www.umc.edu/Education/Schools/Medicine/Clinical_Science/Surgery/Dr__James_D__Hardy.aspx |archive-date=24 May 2016 |website=University of Mississippi Medical Center}}</ref>

Barnard had experimentally transplanted forty-eight hearts into dogs, which was about a fifth the number that [[Adrian Kantrowitz]] had performed at Maimonides Medical Center in New York and about a sixth the number [[Norman Shumway]] had performed at Stanford University in California. Barnard had no dogs which had survived longer than ten days, unlike Kantrowitz and Shumway who had had dogs survive for more than a year.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McRae |first=Donald |date=25 June 2006 |title=A new heart, a new era |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/jun/26/health.southafrica |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref><ref>''Every Second Counts'', McRae, page 190.</ref><ref name="Daily_I">{{Cite news |date=29 November 1987 |title=Memories of the Heart |work=Daily Intelligencer |location=Doylestown, Pennsylvania |page=A-18}}</ref>

With the availability of new breakthroughs introduced by several pioneers, also including [[Richard Lower (surgeon)|Richard Lower]] at the Medical College of Virginia, several surgical teams were in a position to prepare for a human heart transplant.<ref name="mcrae2006" /><ref name="Adrian-Kantrowitz-Papers">{{Cite web |date=12 March 2019 |title=The Adrian Kantrowitz Papers, Replacing Hearts: Left Ventricle Assist Devices and Transplants, 1960–1970 |url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/GN/p-nid/315 |website=U.S. National Library of Medicine |publisher=National Institutes of Health |quote=...Two Stanford surgeons, Norman Shumway and Richard Lower, had started transplanting dog hearts while experimenting with hypothermia during the late 1950s...}}</ref> Barnard had a patient willing to undergo the procedure, but as with other surgeons, he needed a suitable donor.<ref name="mcrae2006" /><ref name="Daily_I" />

During the [[Apartheid]] era in South Africa, non-white persons and citizens were not given equal opportunities in the medical professions. At [[Groote Schuur Hospital]], [[Hamilton Naki]] was an informally taught surgeon. He started out as a gardener and cleaner. One day he was asked to help out with an experiment on a giraffe. From this modest beginning, Naki became principal lab technician and taught hundreds<ref name="NYT 2009">{{Cite news |last=Wines |first=Michael |date=27 August 2005 |title=Accounts of South African's Career Now Seen as Overstated |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/27/world/africa/accounts-of-south-africans-career-now-seen-as-overstated.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref> of surgeons, and assisted with Barnard's organ transplant program. Barnard said, "Hamilton Naki had better technical skills than I did. He was a better craftsman than me, especially when it came to stitching, and had very good hands in the theatre". A popular myth, propagated principally by a widely [[Hamilton Naki|discredited]] documentary film called ''Hidden Heart''<ref>{{Cite news |last=McKay |first=R. |date=1 September 2009 |title=Heart movie skips a beat |work=Times Live |location=South Africa}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Berger |first=S. |date=4 June 2009 |title=Inspiring tale dismissed as 'rubbish' |work=The National |location=Abu Dhabi}}</ref><ref>October A. Dokkie 'verdraai' Barnard-verhaal.{{full citation needed|date=July 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=ABRAHAMS |first=JOHANN |date=2 June 2009 |title=THE HAMILTON NAKI STORY |url=http://www.sabcnews.co.za/SABCnews.com/Documents/SpecialAssignment/HEART-SCRIPT.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010408/http://www.sabcnews.co.za/SABCnews.com/Documents/SpecialAssignment/HEART-SCRIPT.pdf |archive-date=23 July 2011 |website=sabcnews.co.za}}</ref> and an erroneous [[The Guardian Newspaper|newspaper article]],<ref name="NYT 2009" /> maintains incorrectly that [[Hamilton Naki|Naki]] was present during the Washkansky transplant.<ref name="NYT 2009" /><ref name="Guardian-David-Smith-May-2009">{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=David |date=31 May 2009 |title=Film on black surgeon in first heart transplant team rekindles controversy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/31/black-surgeon-first-heart-transplant |work=[[The Guardian]]}} Refers to documentary film ''Hidden Heart'' about Hamilton Naki.</ref>