Managing Medicine’s Image in the ‘Time of the Heart Transplants’

Abstract

In 1968, over 100 heart transplants were conducted worldwide in 18 different countries. The public, the press and the medical community had mixed responses: from real hope and awe to despair and even disgust. Two-thirds of the patients operated on in 1968 died within three months of their revolutionary surgery. Some died after hours or days, while Barnard’s second patient, Philip Blaiberg, went on to celebrate his first year with a new heart, symbolizing and embodying hope for the new procedure.