Dorothy Fischer

Dorothy Fischer (1931  19 October 1981) was a South African woman who was for many years the world's longest surviving heart transplant recipient.

Dorothy Fischer
Born1931
Died19 October 1981
NationalitySouth African
Known forEarly heart transplant survivor

Fischer's heart had been damaged by rheumatic fever as a child and by 1969, when she was 38 years old, her doctors agreed that she was dying.[1] Dr Christiaan Barnard and his team carried out Fischer's heart transplant—their fifth—on 17 April 1969.[1][2][3] She survived for twelve and a half years after the operation and was held up by Barnard as proof that heart transplants were a viable long-term option in spite of the body's rejection of foreign tissue.[2]

Fischer died from complications associated with chronic rejection on 19 October 1981,[2] two years before the immunosuppressive drug Ciclosporin became generally available to transplant patients.

See also

Bibliography

  • Wallis, F. (2000). News Diary: facts and freaks over 1,000 years, Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.

References

  1. RR7819B HEART TRANSPLANTS THE LONGEST SURVIVOR (Television production). AP Television. 8 May 1978. w010124. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  2. "Obituary for Dorothy Fischer (1981)". remembered.co.za. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
  3. "Dorothy Fischer becomes the first South African woman to undergo a heart transplant". sahistory.org. South African History Online. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
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