Raulken co.UK - Adrian Kantrowitz; Performed First US Heart Transplant

By Patricia Sullivan Adrian Kantrowitz, 90, a doctor who performed the first human heart transplant in the United States and developed numerous medical devices that helped save thousands of heart patients, died of complications from congestive heart...

By Patricia Sullivan Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, November 20, 2008; Page B06 Adrian Kantrowitz, 90, a doctor who performed the first human heart transplant in the United States and developed numerous medical devices that helped save thousands of heart patients, died of complications from congestive heart failure Nov. 14 at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Dr. Kantrowitz transplanted the heart of a brain-dead baby to another infant Dec. 6, 1967, days after Christiaan Barnard had pioneered the operation in South Africa. The American baby died after six hours. Dr. Kantrowitz had spent years doing the laboratory work and transplanted hearts in 411 dogs in preparation for a human heart transplant, and he was one of a handful of American physicians who expected to do the first transplant. In fact, 18 months before Barnard succeeded, Dr. Kantrowitz had attempted to save a baby with a congenital heart defect by transplanting the heart from a brain-dead infant. Although he had approval from both sets of parents, at the last minute, two elderly members of his medical team at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn prevented him from going forward until the heart of the first baby stopped beating. By the time it did, an hour later, the heart was badly damaged and could not be transplanted. Dr. Kantrowitz did two more heart transplants before turning away from that field and focusing on his...
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