Christiaan Barnard

Christiaan Neethling Barnard was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident victim Denise Darvall into the chest of 54-year-old Louis Washkansky who regained full consciousness and was able to talk easily with his wife, before dying eighteen days later of pneumonia, largely brought on by the anti-rejection drugs that suppressed his immune system. Barnard had told Mr. and Mrs. Washkansky that the operation had an 80% chance of success, an assessment which has been criticised as misleading. Barnard's second transplant patient, Philip Blaiberg, whose operation was performed at the beginning of 1968, returned home from the hospital and lived for a year and a half.

8 November 1922

Born on the same birth date (8 November 1922): Ademir de Menezes • Thea D. Hodge

Born on the same birth day (8 November): Alfredo Astiz • Jasmine Thompson • Matthew Bulbeck • Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton • SZA • Sergio Porrini • Timothy Egan • Ángel Cordero Jr.

Born in the same month (November 1922): Al Hirt • Charles M. Schulz • Claus Moser, Baron Moser • Eugene Stoner • Fernance B. Perry • Francesco Rosi • Kim Hunter • Luis Somoza Debayle • Manuel Fraga • Raymond Devos • Thea D. Hodge • Yuri Knorozov