The story of heart transplantation: From cape town to cape comorin

Abstract

Norman Shumway is widely regarded as the father of heart transplantation although the world's first adult human heart transplant was performed by Christiaan Barnard, on December 3, 1967, at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. Adrian Kantrowitz performed the world's first pediatric heart transplant on December 6, 1967 and Norman Shumway performed the first adult heart transplant in the United States on January 6, 1968, at the Stanford University Hospital. In India, PK Sen attempted the first heart transplant in humans soon after Christaan Barnaard but the first and subsequent patients died. The first successful heart transplant in India was by Dr. P Venugopal in 1994 at AIIMS, New Delhi. This was followed soon after by Dr. KM Cherian who also did the first pediatric and first heart lung transplant in India.