Heartbreaker
Christian Barnard and the first heart transplant
Wednesday 6th December at 12 noon for 12h30
at The Pavilion, Kelvin Grove
The launch of Heartbreaker: Christiaan Barnard and the first heart transplant in the week of the 50th Anniversary of the First Human Heart Transplant was an exciting affair.
Author James Styan did extensive research in writing this book. There are many unknown facts about Heart Surgeon Christiaan Barnard which the author has uncovered that will warm your heart and some that will surprise you. An outstanding speaker.
The Book
In this new biography of Chris Barnard we not only learn about the life of South Africa’s most famous surgeon, from his Beaufort West childhood through his studies locally and abroad to his prominent marriages – and divorces – but James Styan also examines the impact of the historic heart transplant on Barnard’s personal life and South African society at large, where apartheid legislation often made the difficulties of medicine even more convoluted.
The role of black medical staff like Hamilton Naki is explored, as is the intense rivalry that arose between other famous heart surgeons and Barnard. How did Barnard manage to beat them all in this race of life and death? How much did his famous charisma have to do with it all?
In the light of his later years, his subsequent successes and considerable failures, what is Barnard’s legacy today?
Styan covers it all in this fascinating new account of a real heartbreaker.
A two-course lunch with wine was served.
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