The research leading to the first heart transplant Years of research, experimentation, failure, and eventual breakthroughs. When Paget spoke these words in 1896, the human heart was heavily cloaked in scientific and religious mystery. The heart had always remained buried deep within the body, audible but not visible; surgically untouchable and spiritually sacrosanct. According to…
The day of the accident The event that started it all. On Saturday the 2nd December 1967, was a fresh summer’s day in Cape Town, where the locals were out in full force, enjoying the pre-Christmas bustle. Among them was 25-year old Denise Darvall with her parents Edward and Myrtle as well as her youngest…
Original General Surgery Theatres Theatres A and B, are the original General Surgery theatres used for the first human heart transplant. Everything in them is laid out to create a fully authentic representation of the pioneering operation which took place at Groote Schuur Hospital on the 3rd of December 1967. Visit Heart Of Cape Town…
The most famous heart in history. Honouring the memory of Denise Darvall and the first heart selflessly donated to save a man’s life. On that fateful day, on the 2nd December 1967, Denise Darvall and her mother stopped on Main Road, Salt River, to buy a cream cake for their afternoon tea visit. As they…
The drama of being the first and the ultimate operation. The time had come to perform that once unthinkable act. By the end of 1967 scientific research into the technique of heart transplantation was well established. For some in the medical world this, together with the growing success and acceptance of open-heart surgery, meant the…
The world’s most skilled and driven cardiac surgeons. This timeline is structured around the main events leading up to the first human heart transplant in 1967, it illustrates how the race to make medical history was closely and dramatically run by four of the world’s most skilled and driven cardiac surgeons. Read below how Christiaan…