Heart transplant

A heart transplant is transplant, a type of surgery where someone's damaged or failing heart is removed and replaced with a healthier donor heart, likely to be from someone who passed just a few hours before the surgery. it is required that two or more healthcare providers declare the donor brain-dead.

It is otherwise known as an 'open heart procedure', taking several hours to accomplish. The first heart transplant on a human was done by Christiaan Barnard on Louis Washkansky, a 54-year-old with both diabetes and incurable heart disease at the time. This procedure was carried out on Sunday 3rd December 1967.

 Related pages  
 Gastric bypass surgery
 Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) 

References

 Other websites 
 Heart transplant website built by heart transplant patient, John Fisher

Category:Surgery
Category:Heart
Category:Transplants
Category:Cardiology
Category:Medical procedures