the 40th anniversary of the World's First Heart Transplant, Groote Schuur
Hospital, Cape Town
3 December 2007
Programme Director Dr Saadiq Kariem
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool
My colleague MEC Pierre Uys
Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town Professor Njabulo Ndebele
Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences
Representatives of the City of Cape Town
Chairman of the Board Mr I Salwary
Management and staff of Groote Schuur Hospital
Managing Director of the Heart of Cape Town Museum Mr Hennie Joubert
Chris Barnard Foundation Trustee Professor A Barday
Members of the Team involved in the first heart transplant
Members and friends of the Barnard Family
Netcare Chief Executive Officer Dr Richard Friedland
Executive Mayor Helen Zille
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Good evening,
I would like first to thank the Trustees of the Christian Barnard Foundation
for honouring the central role played by government in creating the enabling
environment to facilitate this landmark in surgery and world-renowned advance
in medical history and science.
I am also deeply honoured to have received this unique medallion on behalf
of government which, I was given earlier this evening at the very special
opening of the new Heart of Cape Town Museum earlier this evening [18h00].
It gives me a great pleasure to address you today as we celebrate the 40th
anniversary of the world's first heart transplant. This heart transplant was
performed here at Groote Schuur Hospital, in the Faculty of Health Sciences of
the University of Cape Town. It would be no exaggeration to say that this
singular, groundbreaking advancement in organ transplant put South African
medicine on the map globally. It also impacted profoundly on transplant
medicine and the care of those seriously ill with heart disease worldwide.
But such a momentous event would not have been possible without the great
courage and sacrifice demonstrated by the family of the first heart donor. The
donor, Denise Darvall, was tragically killed whilst crossing the road close to
Groote Schuur Hospital on the second of December 1967. In permitting their
daughter's heart to be used in this historic operation, the Darvall family gave
the first recipient, Louis Washkansky, a chance to live, albeit briefly for 18
days. The sacrifice and courage of the Darvall family should be remembered by
all South Africans as they contemplate donating their organs for
transplantation.
While I have always encouraged people to donate organs and other human
tissues in my capacity as the Minister of Health, I have never imagined the
amount of gratitude that I am now feeling as an organ recipient myself. It has
energized me. Let me take this opportunity to once again express my greatest
appreciation to the family of the donor who gave me a gift of life. God
bless.
Programme director, Professor Christian Barnard's brilliance as a
cardiothoracic surgeon was also critical in ensuring success. This success
would not have been possible without the services of a skilled and committed
team of surgeons, cardiologists, nurses and technicians who assisted Professor
Barnard on that very important day in the history of medicine. They
demonstrated that a developing country on the southern tip of the African
continent could beat the rest of the world with this remarkable surgical
feat.
In commemorating that great day in 1967, we should not forget the role
played by the late Hamilton Naki [died 2005] in Barnard's historic achievement.
The Naki family experienced a tragic death in their family a few days ago and
they are represented here this evening by a family friend.
The great American pioneer of cardiac surgery, Alfred Blalock developed the
Blalock-Tausig shunt for the relief of cyanosis in children with assistance
from an African American, Vivien Thomas whose contribution went unrecognised at
the time. Barnard also did groundbreaking work of Fallot's tetralogy before
going on to perform the first transplant. Barnard was also assisted by a black
African whose contribution in apartheid South Africa went unnoticed at the
time.
Barnard himself acknowledged the teaching skills and technical competence of
Naki who did not assist in that first transplant but did play a part in the
preparatory work. In recognition of this work, Naki has received the National
Order of Mapungubwe in Bronze, MMed degree [honoris causa] from the University
of Cape Town and an award for Excellence in Health from the Department of
Health.
As our President, President Thabo Mbeki remarked recently in his weekly
letter on the ANC weekly publication, ANC Today, "excellence of our medical
workers at all levels, and the unquestionable professional competence within
our public health system, driven by unwavering devotion to the ethics that
attach to the practice of medicine," has been demonstrated time and again. This
excellence was demonstrated once again this year when a team of medical
professionals operated on two young patients using one donated liver under a
programme "one donor two recipients." The transplant project was a joint effort
between Johannesburg General Hospital and Donald Gordon Centre.
It is important to remember these incidents when we become discouraged in
our continuing struggle to build an accessible, caring and high quality health
system that will ensure that all our people can live a better and healthy life.
The canards that continually attack and criticise the efforts of both
government and healthcare workers should not be allowed to demoralise us in our
task of continually upgrading the service we provide to our patients and
communities. Events such as Barnard's transplant demonstrate what can be
achieved through courage, self-confidence and dedication to the task even with
limited resources.
It is important for us as health workers, clinical teachers and health
researchers to remember these lessons from the past as we seek to build a
better future for all in this country. Facilities such as Groote Schuur and
others across the country should remain unwavering in their commitment to train
the future generations of healthcare workers, representative in terms of race
and gender, to provide service to the people of South Africa. Perhaps some will
turn out to be the Chris Barnards of the future.
Researchers in these facilities should remain tireless in their efforts to
develop better treatments for both communicable and non-communicable diseases,
to design new prosthetic heart valves, stem cell interventions for terminal
heart failure and better health systems to deliver health interventions.
We must also ensure that, whilst we are developing excellent and
groundbreaking interventions at tertiary level, we must also strengthen primary
healthcare. Primary health care still remains the foundation of our health
system. You will all agree that we must promote good health and address the
challenges of poverty, underdevelopment and other factors that undermine health
such as poor nutrition and food insecurity.
This is what is generally termed social determinants of health. While we are
doing pioneering work in the transplants, remember to pass the message of
prevention as critical to the health challenges facing us. In this regard, I
wish to remind us that next year we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the
Alma Ata Declaration and the adoption of the primary healthcare approach.
Whilst we celebrate high tech innovation, we must also rededicate ourselves to
primary healthcare.
This evening, let us celebrate the achievements of our fellow citizens in
bringing credit to South African health science and practice on the second of
December 1967. We look forward to a future in which South African surgeons and
physicians, health workers and researchers will continue to make their mark in
the world's history.
Thank you
Issued by: Department of Health
3 December 2007
