On Dec. 3, 1967, South African cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard transplanted a heart from a 25-year-old who died in an accident into a 53-year-old man. The man died 18 days later of pneumonia, but Barnard considered the transplant a success. It was followed days later by the first American transplant at Stanford University in California. Now, thousands of heart transplants are done worldwide each year, with roughly 75% of patients surviving for more than 5 years.
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