The history and current status of heart transplantation
Christiaan Barnard performed the first human heart transplant in Cape Town in 1967. However, it was the American Norman Shumway who deserves credit for establishing it as a practical treatment for patients with advanced heart failure.
The British programme of transplantation was started at Papworth Hospital in 1979 and with the advent of better drugs for treating rejection; Papworth became one of the pre-eminent centres for heart and lung transplantation. Sir Terence English will examine the history of this life-changing procedure through to its current practice today.