Dorothy Fischer (193119 October 1981) was a South African woman who was for many years the world's longest surviving
heart transplant
A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common proce ...
recipient.
Fischer's heart had been damaged by
rheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever (RF) is an inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain. The disease typically develops two to four weeks after a streptococcal throat infection. Signs and symptoms include fever, multiple painful jo ...
as a child and by 1969, when she was 38 years old, her doctors agreed that she was dying.
Dr
Christiaan Barnard
Christiaan Neethling Barnard (8 November 1922 – 2 September 2001) was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident-v ...
and his team carried out Fischer's heart transplant—their fifth—on 17 April 1969.
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.
Fischer died from complications associated with chronic rejection on 19 October 1981,
two years before the immunosuppressive drug
Ciclosporin
Ciclosporin, also spelled cyclosporine and cyclosporin, is a calcineurin inhibitor, used as an immunosuppressant medication. It is a natural product. It is taken orally or intravenously for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn's disease, ...
became generally available to transplant patients.
See also
*
Christiaan Barnard
Christiaan Neethling Barnard (8 November 1922 – 2 September 2001) was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant operation. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident-v ...
*
Heart transplantation
A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common procedu ...
Bibliography
* Wallis, F. (2000). News Diary: facts and freaks over 1,000 years, Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.
References
External links
Dorothy Fischer on Youtube.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Dorothy
1931 births
1981 deaths
People from Cape Town
Heart transplant recipients
Afrikaner people