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The first heart-lung machine
The first heart-lung machine was used for heart surgery. This was one of the developments that made heart transplants possible. -
First Human Heart Transplant
Christiaan Barnard performed the first heart transplant on him. He survived for 18 days. -
1970-1971
The number of heart transplants declined due to not being able to keep the patients alive for a long time. They then put a halt on transplants until further research was done. -
First successful heart transplant in the UK
Sir Terence English performed the first successful heart transplant in the UK on patient, Keith Castle. -
The first non-beating transplant
Using non-beating hearts after cardiac death has the potential to increase the number of hearts available for transplant. There were 14 DCD heart transplants in the UK in 2016-2017. -
Today
There looking at ways for the human heart to repair itself so they can do less and less heart transplants.