Christiaan Neethling Barnard, South African cardiothoracic surgeon (Beaufort West 08 November 1922 – Paphos, Cyprus 02 September 2001)

Born from Dutch father

ACHIEVEMENTS

Performed the world’s first human heart transplant (03 December 1967). He is first to choose as a heart donor a brain-dead accident victim (1967) 

Defined the concept of brain death

First successfully implanted artificial arteries (1969)

Developed technique of heterotopic heart transplantation with Jacques Losman (1974)

First to attempt xenograft transplantation in a human patient (1977)

With J.H. Louw showed how intestinal atresia resulted from vascular block

Discovered that congenital intestinal atresia is caused by an inadequate blood supply to the fetus during pregnancy and developed a procedure to correct it

Designed Barnard artificial heart valve (1957)

With D. Novitsky, W.N. Wicomb, D.K.C. Cooper, A.G. Rose & R.C. Fraser showed the concept of hormonal replacement therapy in dead transplant donors (1984)

With D.K.C. Cooper & W.N. Wicomb the first to successfully transport donor hearts using a hypothermic perfusion storage device (1981)

With M.S. Barnard enunciated principles for complete correction of Fallot’s tetralogy (1975)

With T.G. O’Donovan & M.S. Gotsman developed a method of surgical treatment for transposition of great vessels in infants (1968)

With M.S. Gotsman, W. Beck, I.W. Piller, S.C. Bosman & V. Schrire developed a modified technique for long-term endocardial pacemaking (1966)

With C.C. Goosen, V. Schrire & L.V. Holmgren developed University of Cape Town mitral valve prosthesis (1962-3)

With V. Schrire performed the first successful surgical correction of Ebstein’s anomaly tricuspid valve replacement (1962) and first prostethic valve replacement (1963)

A method of operating on fetal dogs in utero (1957) 

HONORS

Medicine & Physiology Nobel Prize nominee