The first successful human heart transplant was performed in 1967. South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard led the operation at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town on December 3, 1967.
Barnard transplanted the heart of Denise Darvall, a 25-year-old accident victim, into Louis Washkansky, a 54-year-old man with severe heart disease. The operation lasted about five hours, and Washkansky regained consciousness and was able to speak with his wife. He died 18 days later from pneumonia, partly because anti-rejection drugs weakened his immune system, but the procedure is still regarded as the first successful human-to-human heart transplant.
The achievement depended on earlier work by American surgeons Norman Shumway and Richard Lower, who developed techniques for heart transplantation in animals and refined methods for preserving and implanting the organ. Several other teams attempted transplants soon afterward, including Adrian Kantrowitz, who performed the first pediatric heart transplant in December 1967.
A frequent confusion is the date 1968: Norman Shumway performed the first adult heart transplant in the United States that year. The landmark first human-to-human operation, however, occurred in 1967.