05 Dec “Happy Anniversary, Heart Transplant” – New York Times
“Fifty years ago this Sunday, the first adult human heart transplant was performed in Cape Town. It was an epoch-making advance in science — and also, perhaps, in human culture. The heart, heavy as it is with symbolism, has always occupied a special place in our collective imagination. Despite our relatively sophisticated biomedical understanding of its function, many people still think of the heart as the seat of affection and courage. When Barney Clark, a retired dentist with end-stage heart failure, received the world’s first permanent mechanical heart in 1982, his wife worried he might not still be able to love her…”
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