This Day in History: December 21, 1967
Additional Date: December 21, 1967
Fifty four year old dentist Louis Washkansky, recipient of the first successful human heart transplant in the world, died in Cape Town, eighteen days after receiving the heart of Denise Darvall who had been involved in a car accident. The heart transplant operation was performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town on 3 December 1963.
Washkansky died of pneumonia brought on by a weakened immune system. Heart transplants have become routine procedures since then. Although Washkansky later died, Barnard considered the surgery a success.