1967: Alien heart

From the newspaper Izvestia on December 4, 1967:

“The 55-year-old resident of the South African city of Cape Town Louis Vashkansky was transplanted by the heart of 25-year-old Deniz Darval, who broke in a car disaster. Doctors consider his condition satisfactory. "

From the newspaper Izvestia dated December 4, 1967: “The 55-year-old resident of the South African city of Cape Town Louis Vashkansky was transplanted by the heart of 25-year-old Deniz Darwal, who broke in a car disaster. Doctors consider his condition satisfactory. " From the autobiography of Christian Barnard (London, 1978): “The seriously ill Vashkansky was confronted with the choice: death or operation in which the chances of survival did not exceed 80%. He chose the operation. If the lion drives you to the banks of the river, teeming with crocodiles, you do not hesitate to rush into the water. But you would never have decided on this without the help of a lion. " From the newspaper Keip Herald dated December 5, 1967: “Professor Barnard denies that he sought to set a record, for the first time by making a heart transplant. He claims that he would never have chosen Vashkansky for such experience, which suffers from a whole bouquet of chronic diseases, including diabetes ... The girl’s heart was smaller than Vashkansky’s own heart and literally dangles in his chest. In order not to worry the patient, he is not yet informed, whose heart is transplanted to him. " On December 21, Louis Vashkansky was still dead-from severe pneumonia. Be that as it may, the example of Barnard inspired doctors around the world. For six months in different countries, more than a hundred heart operations were carried out that ended in the death of patients. Only in November 1968, the same Barnard transplanted the heart to the Frenchman Emmanuel Vitria, after which he lived another 20 years. From the magazine "Medical Life" for December 1997: “Today, Christian Barnard, recognized by one of the ten largest doctors of the century, lives on its own sheep farm in South Africa. This playboy and the favorite of the audience himself says about himself: "In my life I took up everything, and I succeeded in everything." He regrets only two things. The first is the “cream against aging” invented by him, which was recognized as ineffective and expelled from the American market. He also regrets that he did not strongly oppose the apartheid regime in his homeland. ” From the newspaper “Arguments and Facts” dated June 4, 1998: “In our country, the famous surgeon Alexander Vishnevsky was the first to re -transplant heart transplantation, bypassing the unspoken prohibitions by spending it in Leningrad. The operation ended with the death of the patient. A veto was imposed on the heart transplant for a long time. In 1987, the cardiac surgeon Valery Shumakov made the first successful operation of this kind in Russia. But still transplantation is considered to be "exotic". Since then, about 100 hearts have been transplanted in Russia, while about 3.5 thousand transplants are produced in the United States annually. We were late for thousands of human lives. ” Genius, genius teacher Elena Kokurina, replacement of the heart does not differ from the replacement of the pump! So said the South African surgeon Christian Barnard several years ago when he came to Moscow. By that time, he had already left surgical practice, doing 52 heart transplant operations. He recalled his victories and failures. The first patient, who applauded the whole world in 1967, lived with a donor heart for only 18 days and died of infection. The second is a year and a half, the fifth is already twelve and a half. And the sixth died in old age, 23 years after the heart transplant, from completely different reasons. Barnard came to Moscow because he considers this city special for his medical career. "If not for the cellars of the Sklifosovsky Institute, I would never have managed to do it!" It was there that in the 60s the laboratory of Professor Demikhov, whom Barnard considered his teacher, was located. Professor Demikhov-a person who at one time went to legends, although the fantasticity of his real experiments overtook any philistine fantasy, a person who studied transplant surgeons around the world on the schemes-survived old age in a one-room apartment on the outskirts of Moscow and received only 200 rubles of pensions. We met shortly before his death, and the conversation was difficult, since the professor was seriously ill and was difficult to make up memory. He did not remember much of what happened to him in his life, but at some moments he suddenly revived-for example, when I asked him about which organs a person could change. In response, I heard: "All!" And he practically proved it. He developed in an experiment on dogs about forty core schemes of heart transplantation, each time improving and reducing the time of operation. “I did my first heart transplant operation from ten in the morning to two in the morning and only reached the middle,” he recalled. - If the dog had not died, then I probably would have died myself. Gradually, I worked out this process and began to fit in two to three hours. ” He transplanted his heart and lungs at the same time, liver, kidneys, pancreas. His experiments on rejuvenation made a strong impression on the assistants: the wool of the old dogs that were replaced by the adrenal glands suddenly began to shine, their posture changed. However, units could study with Demikhov, since back in 1947 at a meeting of the physiological society, transplantation was recognized as blasphemous, and few decided to come to the professor for operations. Demikhov and his laboratory moved from place to place, and each director dreamed of quickly getting rid of him. In 1960, Demikhov, with great difficulty, published the world's first monograph on the transplantation of organs, which at that time became the only guide for transplantology. Domestic doctors did not find appliance to her, and abroad she parted at an incredible speed, and the guests reached for the non -abnormal genius. Christian Barnard was among the first. He realized that he would not be able to achieve an internship from Demikhov in an official way, and bought a tour in the USSR. Instead of inspecting the sights, he assisted the professor in the basement of the institute. Sklifosovsky. He turned out to be a good student - in every way. When the news of a successful heart transplant flew around the whole world, in the first interview Barnard said that his patient owed his life to Professor Demikhov. This was said very on time and saved the Demikhov laboratory - just at that moment the director of Sklif decided to close it. After this path, they crossed little. Demikhov remained persecuted, but continued his experiments. He has already begun to create a bank of living organs, plan experiments on the cultivation of the embryo organs and connecting an elderly person to them. Played developed a scheme for the operation of coronary noise, now widely known and saved the lives of millions of people in the world. He died in poverty and oblivion, since those weak belated attempts on the part of the authorities to give him attention and help at the end of his life are incomparable with what he did for world medicine. Several times, forgetting that he was repeating, he held out a picture to me, where an unlucking smiling South African with a young wife was depicted, and asked: “Will you recognize Barnard? He did it! "

From the autobiography of Christian Barnard (London, 1978):

“The seriously ill Vashkansky was faced with a choice: death or an operation in which the chances of survival did not exceed 80%. He chose the operation. If the lion drives you to the banks of the river, teeming with crocodiles, you do not hesitate to rush into the water. But you would never have decided on this without the help of a lion. "

From the newspaper "Keip Herald" dated December 5, 1967:

“Professor Barnard denies that he sought to set a record, for the first time by transplanting the heart. He claims that he would never have chosen Vashkansky for such experience, which suffers from a whole bouquet of chronic diseases, including diabetes ... The girl’s heart was smaller than Vashkansky’s own heart and literally dangles in his chest. In order not to worry the patient, he is not yet informed, whose heart is transplanted to him. "

On December 21, Louis Vashkansky was still dead-from severe pneumonia. Be that as it may, the example of Barnard inspired doctors around the world. For six months in different countries, more than a hundred heart operations were carried out that ended in the death of patients. Only in November 1968, the same Barnard transplanted the heart to the Frenchman Emmanuel Vitria, after which he lived another 20 years.

From the magazine "Medical Life" for December 1997:

“Today, Christian Barnard, recognized as one of the ten largest doctors of the century, lives on his own sheep farm in South Africa. This playboy and the favorite of the audience himself says about himself: "In my life I took up everything, and I succeeded in everything." He regrets only two things. The first is the “cream against aging” invented by him, which was recognized as ineffective and expelled from the American market. He also regrets that he did not strongly oppose the apartheid regime in his homeland. ”

From the newspaper "Arguments and Facts" dated June 4, 1998:

“In our country, the famous surgeon Alexander Vishnevsky was the first to transplant the heart, bypassing the unspoken prohibitions by spending it in Leningrad. The operation ended with the death of the patient. A veto was imposed on the heart transplant for a long time. In 1987, the cardiac surgeon Valery Shumakov made the first successful operation of this kind in Russia. But still transplantation is considered to be "exotic". Since then, about 100 hearts have been transplanted in Russia, while about 3.5 thousand transplants are produced in the United States annually. We were late for thousands of human lives. ”

Genius, teacher of genius

Elena Kokurina

The replacement of the heart does not differ from the replacement of the pump! So said the South African surgeon Christian Barnard several years ago when he came to Moscow. By that time, he had already left surgical practice, doing 52 heart transplant operations. He recalled his victories and failures. The first patient, who applauded the whole world in 1967, lived with a donor heart for only 18 days and died of infection. The second is a year and a half, the fifth is already twelve and a half. And the sixth died in old age, 23 years after the heart transplant, from completely different reasons.

Barnard came to Moscow because he considers this city special for his medical career. "If not for the cellars of the Sklifosovsky Institute, I would never have managed to do it!" It was there that in the 60s the laboratory of Professor Demikhov, whom Barnard considered his teacher, was located.

Professor Demikhov-a person who at one time went to legends, although the fantasticity of his real experiments overtook any philistine fantasy, a person who studied transplant surgeons around the world on the schemes-survived old age in a one-room apartment on the outskirts of Moscow and received only 200 rubles of pensions. We met shortly before his death, and the conversation was difficult, since the professor was seriously ill and was difficult to make up memory.

He did not remember much of what happened to him in his life, but at some moments he suddenly revived-for example, when I asked him about which organs a person could change. In response, I heard: "All!" And he practically proved it. He developed in an experiment on dogs about forty core schemes of heart transplantation, each time improving and reducing the time of operation.

“I did my first heart transplant operation from ten in the morning to two in the morning and only reached the middle,” he recalled. - If the dog had not died, then I probably would have died myself. Gradually, I worked out this process and began to fit in two to three hours. ”

He transplanted his heart and lungs at the same time, liver, kidneys, pancreas. His experiments on rejuvenation made a strong impression on the assistants: the wool of the old dogs that were replaced by the adrenal glands suddenly began to shine, their posture changed. However, units could study with Demikhov, since back in 1947 at a meeting of the physiological society, transplantation was recognized as blasphemous, and few decided to come to the professor for operations. Demikhov and his laboratory moved from place to place, and each director dreamed of quickly getting rid of him.

In 1960, Demikhov, with great difficulty, published the world's first monograph on the transplantation of organs, which at that time became the only guide for transplantology. Domestic doctors did not find appliance to her, and abroad she parted at an incredible speed, and the guests reached for the non -abnormal genius. Christian Barnard was among the first. He realized that he would not be able to achieve an internship from Demikhov in an official way, and bought a tour in the USSR. Instead of inspecting the sights, he assisted the professor in the basement of the institute. Sklifosovsky.

He turned out to be a good student - in every way. When the news of a successful heart transplant flew around the whole world, in the first interview Barnard said that his patient owed his life to Professor Demikhov. This was said very on time and saved the Demikhov laboratory - just at that moment the director of Sklif decided to close it.

After this path, they crossed little. Demikhov remained persecuted, but continued his experiments. He has already begun to create a bank of living organs, plan experiments on the cultivation of the embryo organs and connecting an elderly person to them. Played developed a scheme for the operation of coronary noise, now widely known and saved the lives of millions of people in the world.

He died in poverty and oblivion, since those weak belated attempts on the part of the authorities to give him attention and help at the end of his life are incomparable with what he did for world medicine. Several times, forgetting that he was repeating, he held out a picture to me, where an unlucking smiling South African with a young wife was depicted, and asked: “Will you recognize Barnard? He did it! "