Dr. Christiaan Barnard, the South African surgeon who performed the world's first successful human heart transplant, died Sunday after a career that included writing novels and breaking down racial barriers.

The cardiac pioneer suffered a fatal asthma attack after going for a swim at a hotel in Cyprus, according to a statement from the Christiaan Barnard Foundation. He was 78.

Barnard had been on holiday with his wife in the coastal town of Paphos. A Cypriot doctor tried to revive him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but without success.




Barnard made medical history in December, 1967 when he performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.

Louis Washkansky, 53, received the heart of a 25-year-old woman who died in a car accident.

He lived for 18 days before before dying of double pneumonia attributed to his suppressed immune system. A second patient survived for 18 months before his body finally rejected the organ.

Dr. Barnard's first transplant patient, Louis Washkansky
Dr. Barnard's first transplant patient, Louis Washkansky

The revolutionary procedure rocked the medical world, and Barnard became an international celebrity.

He wrote two autobiographies, as well as several health books and novels that were based on his knowledge of cardiac research. One thriller was about a devious doctor who tried to put a baboon's brain in a comatose patient.

Heart transplants are still not routine procedures, but they have improved significantly over the decades. Cardiologists say that 90 per cent of patients survive the surgery, and 85 per cent live for at least a year.




Barnard blazed other trails in South Africa. He was the first doctor to have black nurses help treat white patients, and he transplanted the heart of a white woman into a black man.

His courage to cross racial barriers was acknowledged by former South African president Nelson Mandela.

"He was one of our main achievers, a pioneer in heart transplant, and he also has done very well in expressing his opinion on ... apartheid," Mandela said at a news conference Sunday.