First Human Heart Transplant (1967)
Christiaan Barnard performed the first human heart transplant in Cape Town, South Africa. Patient Louis Washkansky survived 18 days before dying of pneumonia. The surgery proved hearts could be replaced mechanically but revealed massive challenges: organ rejection, immunosuppression side effects, and critical donor shortages. Over 50 years later, only 3,500 heart transplants occur annually in the U.S. while 6.5 million Americans have heart failure.
Initial transplants had <50% one-year survival; immunosuppression drugs gradually improved outcomes through the 1980s.
Heart transplantation became standard for end-stage failure but donor scarcity and rejection risk left millions without options, creating demand for regenerative alternatives.
Transplantation's limitations—fewer than 6,000 donor hearts available worldwide annually for millions in need—make regenerating patients' own heart tissue the only scalable solution.