The initial public response that he received with regard to this operation was negative and fraught with controversies and ethical oppositions. The public demanded an answer for the death of the donor since patients could live by artificial means for an unlimited period of time. However, after his successful heart transplant, his eminence was catapulted to great heights and he came to be highly regarded by his patients. Washkansky survived with the new heart for eighteen days after which he developed pneumonia because of the immunosuppressive drugs he was taking. Hence, he was able to state that in order to suppress body’s basic mechanism of rejection of foreign tissue; he should be given powerful antirejection medications. They are known as ‘immune suppressants’ and reduce body’s resistance towards foreign tissue and thereby suppress the overall immune response as well. After the success story of Barnard with his operations, several surgeons took up the same task, but yielded poor results. The percentage of patients who survived was considerably low. Philip Blaiberg, who was Barnard’s second patient survived for 593 days (19 months) and Dirk van Zyl was the patient who lived the longest, surviving for over 23 years with his new heart. Barnard accomplished ten orthotopic transplants and was famous for his heterotropic (double heart) heart transplant in which the patient’s heart is not removed and a new heart is positioned effectively. He also gathered the fame of being the first to conduct xenograft transplantation, which he performed to save a young girl who was unable to live without artificial life support as her second aortic valve was replaced. Along with these transplants, he also continued his medical researches that comprised of ways to decelerate aging process. The years followed with several recognitions and awards such as Dag Hammarskjold International Prize and Peace Prize, the Milan International Prize for Science, the Kennedy Foundation Award the title of ‘Professor Emeritus’ in 1984.
Read more at http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/christiaan-barnard-428.php#DFxgaR1xV52v9UU0.99The Success Story