克里斯蒂安·巴纳德1922—2001

巴纳德的童年在南非开普省的西博福特度过，生活贫困，1940年，巴纳德被Beaufort West High School录取。1945年进入开普敦大学医学院，随后在那里获得学士学位。医学院毕业后，他作为一个家庭医生的助手，却不能融洽相处，最终被赶出来。他又去了开普敦大学学普通外科学。

巴纳德1946年自开普敦大学毕业，1953年获得硕士学位，1956年赴美国明尼苏达大学访问学习，并开始人体器官移植方面的研究。1958年他回到南非，1967年成功实施了南非第一例肾脏移植手术。他先后尝试给几十条狗实施了心脏移植手术。1967年他终于成功地实施了世界上第一例人体心脏移植手术，病人接受移植后存活了18天。其后他又实施了不少次心脏移植手术，其中最成功的一位病人存活了超过23年。

巴纳德1983年退休，2001年在塞浦路斯度假时猝死于当地。

Christiaan Neethling Barnard (8 November 1922 – 2 September 2001) was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident victim Denise Darvall into the chest of 54-year-old Louis Washkansky, who regained full consciousness and was able to talk easily with his wife, before dying 18 days later of pneumonia, largely brought on by the anti-rejection drugs that suppressed his immune system. Barnard had told Mr. and Mrs. Washkansky that the operation had an 80% chance of success, an assessment which has been criticised as misleading. Barnard's second transplant patient, Philip Blaiberg, whose operation was performed at the beginning of 1968, returned home from the hospital and lived for a year and a half.

Born in Beaufort West, Cape Province, Barnard studied medicine and practised for several years in his native South Africa. As a young doctor experimenting on dogs, Barnard developed a remedy for the infant defect of intestinal atresia. His technique saved the lives of ten babies in Cape Town and was adopted by surgeons in Britain and the United States. In 1955, he travelled to the United States and was initially assigned further gastrointestinal work by Owen Harding Wangensteen at the University of Minnesota. He was introduced to the heart-lung machine, and Barnard was allowed to transfer to the service run by open heart surgery pioneer Walt Lillehei. Upon returning to South Africa in 1958, Barnard was appointed head of the Department of Experimental Surgery at the Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town.

He retired as head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Cape Town in 1983 after rheumatoid arthritis in his hands ended his surgical career. He became interested in anti-aging research, and in 1986 his reputation suffered when he promoted Glycel, an expensive "anti-aging" skin cream, whose approval was withdrawn by the United States Food and Drug Administration soon thereafter. During his remaining years, he established the Christiaan Barnard Foundation, dedicated to helping underprivileged children throughout the world. He died in 2001 at the age of 78 after an asthma attack.

Death

Christiaan Barnard died on 2 September 2001, while on holiday in Paphos, Cyprus. Early reports stated that he had died of a heart attack, but an autopsy showed his death was caused by a severe asthma attack.