Science
The first heart transplant patient lived just eighteen days
On 3 December 1967, South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard transplanted the heart of car-crash victim Denise Darvall into 54-year-old Louis Washkansky. The new heart worked immediately, and Washkansky spoke with his wife within hours. He died 18 days later from pneumonia caused by immune-suppressing drugs, but the operation proved a transplanted heart could sustain a human life.