Answer: The first surgeon to perform a heart transplant surgery was Dr. Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1967. The patient, Louis Washkansky, lived for 18 days after the surgery before dying of pneumonia. Dr. Barnard went on to perform several more heart transplants, including one that was successful and gave the patient a good quality of life for several years.
As for Dr. Barnard himself, he continued to work as a heart surgeon and was widely recognized for his contributions to the field. However, he also faced criticism and controversy, particularly over his methods for selecting patients for transplant. He retired from surgery in the 1980s and died in 2001 at the age of 78. Other pioneering heart transplant surgeons, such as Dr. Norman Shumway in the United States, also faced challenges and setbacks in their work but continued to make important contributions to the field of cardiac surgery.
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