CHRISTIAAN BARNARD - COLLECTION - HFSID 258744

CHRISTIAAN BARNARD. Comprises: (1) TLS: "Chris Barnard", 1p, 7½x10. University of Cape Town, South Africa, 1970 December 11. To Paul P. Hartunian, Belleville, N.J. In full: "Thank you very much for your very nice letter and for the wonderful gift. You are so kind to say all these nice things about me, and I am pleased that you enjoyed by (sic) biography, 'One Life'. I am sending, under separate cover, a surgical instrument [present] and hope that this is what you have been looking for. I would like to take this opportunity of wishing you a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year." On message portion of an air letter with rubber stamped return address: "Surgical Research/Department of Surgery/University of Cape Town Medical School/Observatory, Cape Town." Lightly creased. Chipped at lower blank edge, tip of lower corner missing. Fine condition. (2) The surgical scissors sent by Dr. Barnard, seven inches long, curved at edge. Christiaan Barnard (1922-2001) performed the world's first heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town on December 3, 1967. The patient, 53-year-old dentist Louis Washkansky, lived 18 days before succumbing to rejection of the new heart. After Washkansky died, Barnard and his team persevered with their innovative surgical procedure. His second transplant patient, Philip Blaiberg, lived for 18 months after the operation and the survival time of patients has increased ever since. Today, 90% of patients survive a heart transplant operation, with an 85% chance of living for a year and a 70-75% chance of living for five years. Barnard's longest-surviving patient, Dirk van Zyl, lived with an implanted heart for 23 years before dying in 1996 of diabetes unrelated to his heart condition. The 78-year-old Barnard died from an asthma attack on September 2, 2001. Two items.