Where was the first heart transplant performed in 1967?

The first human heart transplant in 1967 was performed in South Africa.

On 3 December 1967, surgeon Christiaan Barnard led a team at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, in transplanting a human heart into Louis Washkansky, a 53-year-old grocer with severe heart disease. The donor was Denise Darvall, a young woman who had died after a road accident. Her family consented to the donation.

The operation lasted several hours and used a heart-lung machine to keep Washkansky’s circulation and oxygenation going while surgeons removed his diseased heart and connected the donor heart. The transplanted heart began beating after the procedure, making the operation a medical landmark.

Washkansky lived for 18 days before dying from pneumonia linked to immunosuppressive treatment. His death did not erase the significance of the operation: it demonstrated that human-to-human heart transplantation was technically possible. The first U.S. heart transplant followed later in December 1967, performed by Adrian Kantrowitz in New York.