Voting Station

Christiaan Barnard

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Doctor

The Resume

    (November 8, 1922-September 2, 2001)
    Born in Beaufort West, South Africa
    Director of Surgical Research at the University of Cape Town
    Performed the world's first heart transplant (December 3, 1967)
    Wrote the biographies 'One Life' (1969) and 'Second Life' (1993)
    Also wrote 'Your Healthy Heart,' 'The Best Medicine' and 'Good Life, Good Death: A Doctor's Case for Euthanasia and Suicide'

Why he might be annoying:

    The recipient of the first transplanted heart, Louis Washkansky, lived only 18 days after the operation.
    He admitted he was first to perform a heart transplant partly because in South Africa he did not have to run the proposed operation past an ethics review board.
    He became a jet-setter and had an affair with Gina Lollobrigida.
    He was married and divorced three times.
    He was a name dropper.
    He endorsed Glycel, an 'anti-aging' cream later taken off the market by the FDA (1986).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He downplayed his accomplishment, saying 'The heart transplant was not a scientific achievement, it was a technical achievement.'
    His longest-surviving patient, Dorothy Fisher, lived 24 years after her transplant.
    He opposed apartheid.
    He was the first doctor in South Africa to have mixed-race nurses treat white patients.
    He established the Chris Barnard Foundation to help underprivileged children.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 14 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 16 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 24 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 17 Votes: 47.06% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 14 Votes: 14.29% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 10 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 30 Votes: 36.67% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 32 Votes: 40.62% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 38 Votes: 31.58% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 121 Votes: 44.63% Annoying