Louis Washkansky

Washkansky was re-admitted to Groote Schuur on 14 September 1967, which was also the Jewish New Year. As a result of heart attacks in 1965, approximately only one third of his heart was still functioning. In late October, he went into a diabetic coma, but regained consciousness. Once, when he was swollen with fluid and in considerable pain, his wife Ann asked him in a whisper how he was doing. He managed a smile and whispered, "I'm on top of the world." He was also suffering from kidney and liver failure. On 10 November, Val Schrire put forward Washkansky as a possible heart transplant candidate.

In late November 1967, a potential donor was identified. A young black man had fallen off a truck and suffered a catastrophic head injury. Although the Chief of Cardiology, Val Schrire, had previously expressed a strong preference to avoid a "coloured" donor, police approached the young man's family for permission for him to be a heart donor. McRae writes that the family was "in shock after they were confronted by a policeman". The EKG of the donor heart, however, showed depressed ST segments, meaning that it might have been damaged or was not receiving enough oxygenated blood and gave the reluctant Val Schrire a medical reason not to continue with the transplant of a "coloured" donor heart in apartheid South Africa. Washkansky, who had been cleaned and shaved for the possible attempt, felt let down and disappointed when it did not go forward. He felt his future chances were slim.

Washkansky received his heart transplant on 3 December 1967, at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. The operation lasted approximately six hours, beginning at 01:00, with Christiaan Barnard leading a team of thirty surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and technicians. His brother Marius Barnard assisted with the surgery.

In April 1966, Washkansky visited Groote Schuur Hospital due to his pre-existing illness. He was first seen by Barry Kaplan, who in July 1966 had asked if Christiaan Barnard would be willing to attend Washkansky. Barnard had performed a number of laboratory tests and an in-depth examination on Washkansky and came to the conclusion that nothing could be done to help him. In January 1967, Washkansky was referred to Mervyn Gotsman, a cardiologist at the Cardiac Clinic in Groote Schuur Hospital, due to refractory heart failure. Washkansky underwent cardiac catheterisation confirming severe heart failure, and was subsequently referred to Barnard for possible surgery.

Washkansky was actually the second human recipient of a heart transplant overall, in that James Hardy had done a transplant in 1964 in which Boyd Rush received a chimpanzee's heart, although the patient in that case only survived an hour and did not regain consciousness.

Louis Joshua Washkansky (12 April 1912 – 21 December 1967) was a South African man who was the recipient of the world's first human-to-human heart transplant, and the first patient to regain consciousness following the operation. Washkansky lived for 18 days and was able to speak with his wife and reporters.

Washkansky was a Lithuanian Jew, the youngest of the four children of Abe Washkansky and his wife, Chana Yentel Kemelgor. In 1912, when Washkansky was three months old, his father emigrated to South Africa without his family and started a business as a produce merchant. As a result of World War I and its aftermath, Chana and the children were not able to re-unite with Abe in Cape Town until 1923. Washkansky attended Cape Town High School, where he passed the standard eight, before entering the grocery business in Cape Town. He saw active service in World War II in East and North Africa and Italy.