Medicine: Dr Christiaan Barnard
A breakthrough medicine is usually a gateway to the future. That is why life-changing medical procedures are usually under the spotlight and are highly respected and anticipated by everybody.
The first successful heart transplant was done in Cape Town, South Africa. The procedure was done by Dr Christiaan Barnard (1922 - 2001) at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. The procedure was performed on an ill South African grocer named Louis Washkansky and the heart was taken from a young woman , Denise Darvall, who was brain damaged from a car accident. The transplant was successful and Louis lived for 18 days after the surgery but died later of pneumonia. The success of this surgery opened a new horizon to cardiac patients. The procedure improved cardiac patients' quality of life as well as prolonged their life expectancy.
A famous quote of Dr Christiaan Barnard "...for a dying person, a transplant is not a difficult decision. If a lion chases you to a river filled with crocodiles, you will leap into the water convinced you have a chance to swim to the other side. But you would never accept such odds if there were no lion....". Dr Barnard also wrote several books including two autobiographies.
I think this success proves that African doctors and scientists are not detached from the world around them. As the science evolves you will always find African contribution present.
