Swiss film revises South African heart transplant history

The revision of historical facts to fit the politically correct meme of the modern world is a sickness enveloping the Western world. Colonialism was all bad. Slavery was the white man's sole doing. Hitler was a right wing fascist. Che Guevara was a humanitarian. And so on. Now another attack on South African history. A Swiss film distorts the facts surrounding the world's first heart transplant. In this crappola version, the producers clearly set out to find a connection between the transplant event, Dr Barnard and a well-known black surgeon. The problem is, it's 'facts' rest on circumstantial conjecture. It's like saying the sun shines on the trees therefore the moon is sand. It is spurious and absurd. The stuff of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster. Yes, eventually the black man in question did develop into a fine surgeon and his record cannot be disputed but he certainly did NOT partake in the first heart transplant. Unless he held the door shut perhaps.

Why is there always the desire by liberals to find any instance, any smidgen of so-called evidence no matter how remote the possibility, life on Mars kind of improbable, stuff based solely on hearsay, innuendo or rumour that a non-white did this or that?

It is up to us white South Africans to stop the revision of our history. This ingratiation of so-called black achievements must be challenged and when blatantly false shown as such - demand proof! Because left unchecked these things have the potential to grow, like a small pebble thrown into a pond, the ripples get larger the wider it grows. A fabrication becomes another conspiracy theory, which then becomes fact. Remember this tale has the bad guy ingredients as well, racism and the big bad apartheid apparatchik...

But all it is, is a fairy tale. Cinderella time, kids. The bits are all there for a nice beddy bye story. Maybe a half-decent chick flick in the making. Dances With Scalpels. Mmm, a good working title. Cut to scene; poor black labourer gets discovered and becomes a pioneering heart surgeon by the end of the story. Fade to sunset, whip the full orchestral accompaniment...eish, I can see it already. *sniff * sniff*

It is complete bullshit is what it is. A contemptible effort to tarnish and alter a fact of history that has never been in dispute. So let me repeat to all what is accepted as fact (important word, FACT) no ifs, ands or fucking effing buts, it was Dr Christiaan Barnard ably assisted by his BROTHER, Dr Marius Barnard, a team total of 30 white assistants who performed the first heart transplant. End of story. Nowhere in any record of that event stated by any of those present in that operating theatre is the presence of a black surgeon mentioned. None! Not in all the years since 1967. Yes, Dr Naki did go on to be a good surgeon but he was certainly not present at the scene of the first heart transplant. Basta!

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Film on black surgeon in first heart transplant team rekindles controversy

The controversy over the role of a black surgeon in the world's first successful heart transplant has been reignited by the release of a documentary film in South Africa.

Hidden Heart tells the story of Hamilton Naki, a gardener turned self-taught surgeon who became a key assistant to pioneering heart surgeon Dr Christiaan Barnard in his organ transplant programme.

While Barnard was feted around the world for carrying out the first heart transplant in 1967, Naki was effectively rendered invisible by the apartheid government, retiring in 1991 on a gardener's pension equivalent to £70 a month.

But a decade later, with Barnard's help, his contribution gained international recognition. "Hamilton Naki had better technical skills than I did," Barnard said. "He was a better craftsman than me, especially when it came to stitching, and had very good hands in the theatre."

Hidden Heart shows how the operation was trumpeted as a public relations coup for the Afrikaner people and the apartheid government. One review of the film notes that one of the proudest moments in South African history "might also have been one of our most shameful".

Naki, born to a peasant family, had no formal education and started work as a gardener at Cape Town University at 14. One day, while rolling the tennis courts, he was invited by Barnard's predecessor to step inside the laboratory and help with an experiment on a giraffe. He worked his way up to be principal laboratory technician and taught some 3,000 surgeons. Under apartheid laws, Naki officially remained listed as a gardener and cleaner. He was finally recognised with an honorary master of medicine degree in 2003.

The Swiss-made documentary reopens the debate over Naki's claim that he participated in the historic first heart transplant. After Naki's death, aged 78 in 2005, the Economist published an obituary saying Naki assisted in the transplant, but later published an amendment saying it had been assured by surgeons at Groote Schuur hospital that Naki was nowhere near the operating theatre at the time.

Cristina Karrer, co-director of Hidden Heart, told the Star newspaper the mystery ultimately matters little. "To me the point is that he was there in the process," she added. "His contribution was enormous, taking into consideration where he came from." Source

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First heart-transplant team's surgeon Hewitson loses wife in armed attack - Sept 14 2008 - HERMANUS, South Africa. Mrs Lulu Hewitson, 84, wife of cardiac surgeon Prof. Rodney Hewitson, was murdered at the couple's Hermanus smallholding at Northcliff this week. The two grainy pictures on this page show Prof Hewitson during surgery on the right of the operating table, assisting Prof. Barnard on the left. Only four pictures of the world's first heart transplant were ever taken -- secretly with a Minox mini-camera by a member of the 30-person team.

Prof Hewitson was Prof. Christiaan Barnard's righthand at Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town -- helping him stitch up the world's first transplanted heart after it was placed in the chest of grocer Louis Washkansky in 1967 by a 30-person team. Assisting Prof. Christiaan Barnard in the hospital's theatre A - where the heart was placed into Washkansky's chest, were Drs Rodney Hewitson and Terry O'Donovan and Dr Marius Barnard, were Drs. Rodney Hewitson and Terry O'Donovan. Source

One of his colleagues, Prof. Johan Brink of the Chris Barnard Department of Cardiac Surgery, told Beeld newspaper that it was ironic that Hewitson was targetted. "This is the man who made medical history and has spent a lifetime dedicating himself to helping the disadvantaged," he said. Source

"For him to lose his life in this gruesome manner, is ironic and terrifying. "Over the years, he has helped many hundreds of people survive knife-stabbings in the chest. "He also was a mentor worldwide in cardiac surgery techniques.'

Nothing at all was stolen from the well-protected homestead and the murder weapon is still missing, Hermanus police said.
http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2393410,00.html
http://www.research2005.uct.ac.za/health/childadol/ChildAdol2005.pdf