This Day in History: , First Human <br />Heart Transplant.<br />December 3, 1967.<br />Louis Washkansky, 53, received the <br />first human heart transplant at<br /> Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.<br />He received the transplant from <br />Denise Darvall, a 25-year-old woman <br />who was fatally injured in a car accident.<br />Surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed <br />the revolutionary medical operation.<br />Tragically, the anti-rejection <br />drugs given to Washkansky <br />caused him to contract <br />double pneumonia.<br />He died 18 days later.<br />By the 1970s, many <br />of Barnard's transplant <br />patients were living up to <br />five years with their new hearts
