Heroes and Cultural Identity Project

SCE Heroes - Chris Barnard

BRAVEHEART

Prof. Christiaan Neethling Barnard

by Burmoint Mckrill

My all time scientific hero is Prof. Christiaan Neethling Barnard. Nicknamed Chris for short was raised in a humble home in, Beaufort West in Cape Town, South Africa. He grew up with three of his brothers of which one died at a young age of 4. Our destiny is most likely determined by our circumstances we find ourselves. I'm of the opinion that this is why Chris went on to pursue a career as a surgeon. Going on Barnard completed a master's degree at the University of Cape Town, and later in 1955 a Doctorate degree at the University of Minnesota after which he returned to his native South Africa.

Chris Barnard did was confined only to apply his new surgical skills on animals as this was immoral and unprecedented to perform an organ transplant on humans. Regardless of his theoretical evidence he faced authorities that were unwelcoming with his soon to be pioneering ethos. In 1967 he got the go ahead to perform his first human to human heart transplant. The patient was Louis Washkansky, which died 18 days later.

As expected lots of controversy was expressed ignoring the evident circumstance that Louis Washkansky was facing a certain death on 2nd of December 1967. He went on to perform a second transplant a year later by reducing the drug dosage and the patient lived 20 months with his new heart. Scientists all over Europe and the States used his procedures and improved on it as we know today.

This scientific breakthrough saved many lives and was not just because of the excellence of my hero but inclusively from various medical academics in the past to present. In his later years Chris Barnard did research on "Slowing down the ageing process" but documented records will not be revealed until an appropriate time.

Burmoint Mckrill is a science student following a one year university access course in biological sciences.