Transplants Throughout the Years

First human organ transplant

1954

The first major organ to be transplanted successfully was a kidney, in Boston. It was between two identical twins, therefore immune suppression wasn't needed.This transplant helped pave the road for other transplants such as the heart transplant.

First Heart Transplant Announced

1958

In 1958, Norman Shumway and his colleagues announced they were ready to perform the first heart transplant, they just needed to find a suitable donor.

First heart transplant performed.

Dec 3, 1967

The South African cardiac surgeon; Christian Neethling Barnard performed the first heart transplant in Cape Town, South Africa, at Groote Schuur Hospital.

First heart transplant performed in America

1968

Norman Shumway and his team performed the first heart transplant surgery in America in 1968.

First heart transplant in the UK

1968

Heart Hospital in London, was where the first heart transplant took place in UK on 3 May 1968. Donald Ross performed this surgery on a 45 year old man. It was the world's tenth heart transplant.

First Organ Procurement Organization

1968

The first organ procurement organization (OPO) was founded in 1968 in Boston and was the New England Organ Bank.

A new method to preserve organs was discovered.

1970

In the early 1700's, researchers from Stanford discovered a new way to preserve organs when they were out of the body. They found that if you put it in a chilled high-potassium electrolyte solution, it could be preserved for hours. This was helpful as it would last long enough to be transported from the donor to the recipient.

Heart transplants were halted

1971

The number of heart transplants being performed declined rapidly because they were having trouble keeping the patients alive long term. Chief Medical Officer, Donald Ross and other talented, leading surgeons and doctors agreed to slow down human transplants immensely until more research had been done.

A method for noticing rejection of the new heart was found.

1972

Philip Caves and Margaret Billingham were the founders of a technique of monitoring the heart to realise the patient was rejecting the donated heart before it was too late.
They came up with an instrument that was meant to go through a large vein in the patient's neck and directed down the right side of the hearts pumping chamber. It takes pictures of it fluoroscopically and tiny pieces of the heart was taken out and examined to see if it was being rejected.

A drug came out to lower the risk of rejection of the donated heart

1980

Dr.Shumway and his colleagues, the same people who performed the first heart transplant, came out with the use of Cyclosporine to make the risk of rejection smaller. After a long time of research and clinical experience, they introduced the use of cyclosporine combined with endomyocardial biopsy to diagnose rejection, made more surgeries have a successful outcome.

First simultaneous lung and heart transplant was performed.

1981

In 1981, Norman Shumway and Bruce Reitz performed the first simultaneous transplantation of the heart and lungs.It was also the first successful lung transplant ever done.

UKs longest lived transplant recipient

1982

John McCafferty was the longest living recipient of a heart transplant. He had his transplant at Harefield Hospital in London when he was 39. When he died in 2016, at age 73, he was the longest living heart transplant recipient in UK.

Christiaan Bernard Retired

1983

The pioneer of heart transplants retired from performing surgeries and from being the head of the department of cardiothorastic surgery in Capetown in 1983 due to the deveoplment of arthritis in his hand which prevented him from operating. He later began writing and wrote a cardiology text, a autobiography,a novel about organ transplants and several other novels.

The first LVAD was implant.

1984

1984 was the year that Dr. Philip Oyer surgically implanted the first left-ventricular assist device (LVAD) successfully. An LVAD is a four pound battery pack, designed to be temporarily implanted into a patient until a heart becomes available for a transplant.

Beta-blockers were found to be helpful to patients

1996

Cardiologists from Stanford showed that certain types of beta-blockers (drugs that prevent patients from increased cardiac action and used to treat angina, control heart rhythm, and reduce high blood pressure) improve survival and reduce hospitalization rates in patients.

Europe's first non-beating heart transplant

2015

Hearts are usually donated by people who had suffered brain stem deaths and dependent on a ventilator but still had beating hearts. In 2015 they performed one with a non-beating heart which is really great because it will give us more hearts to donate to recipients who are in need of transplants.