57 years ago, on the 3rd December 1967 the first human-to-human heart transplant was preformed by Dr Christiaan Barnard. Barnard was born in 1922 and qualified in medicine at the University of Cape Town in 1946. Following surgical training in South Africa he then completed doctoral studies at the university of Minnesota USA, after which he returned to the hospital as senior cardiothoracic surgeon. Where he established a successful open-heart surgery programme at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town in 1958. His interests led him to develop a new design for artificial heart valves, and he began extensive experimentation on heart transplantation. His zeal and knowledge led him to lead his team of 20 surgeons to perform the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant operation. It was a major historical event and a significant breakthrough for medical science. The article describing this remarkable achievement, titled ‘A human cardiac transplant: an interim report of a successful operation performed at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town’ was published just three weeks after the event in a special edition of the South African Medical Journal and is one of the most cited articles in the cardiovascular field. Although the first heart transplant patient, Louis Washkansky survived only 18 days, four of Groote Schuur Hospital’s first 10 patients survived for more than one year, two living for 13 and 23 years, respectively. This relative success amid many failures worldwide did much to generate guarded optimism that heart transplantation would eventually become a viable therapeutic option.
Since then, doctors have learned much more about transplants. That knowledge, in combination with advancements in technology and anti-rejection drugs have dramatically improved survival. In 2020, just under 8,200 transplants were performed worldwide. In the U.S., about 91% of adult heart transplant recipients live at least one year after the surgery. About half of all people who receive a heart transplant live more than 10 years after the procedure. As a result of advances in medicine and transplant aftercare more and more people live 20 to 30 years or more after their transplant. While it is still considered a treatment of last resort, heart transplants are now the gold standard therapy for end-stage heart failure.
The Bible has much to say about the heart, but when it mentions the heart many times it is speaking about the mind, will and emotion of a person, not the actual organ. The prophet Ezekiel says that man has a heart of stone because of sin. Sin is disobedience to the law of God. This disobedience has caused a separation between God and men. Ezekiel continues and says God will give man a new heart, a heart of flesh. This refers to the fact that sin makes people hard and insensitive, but when God gives man a new heart he causes it to be a new principle of life, with new light infused in man to understand life. A new will filled with new purposes and resolutions; where new affections are placed, and new desires are formed; and where there are new delights and joys. Thus, making the person more sensitive to the needs of those around him. Ezekiel 36 verse 26 ‘A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.’ We all need this heart transplant of life, light, purpose and desire to follow the living God and understand his teachings.
