Speech of Tribute

Speech of Tribute (Outline ) - Christiaan Barnard

Introduction (herby introducing the salient points I am going to discuss in this speech

With the fast pace of today 's life and the increased amounts of saturated fats and other unhealthy substances we consume , the rate of heart disease is high , and one day all of our hearts , including yours may give out

If this does happen , you don 't have to be as concerned as people whose hearts gave in before the days of the first heart transplant , by South African Doctor

Christiaan Barnard were

First we are going to look at what led him up to this pioneering surgery , secondly the surgery itself and thirdly the implications this has had for the later world

Transition (moving onto the body of the speech

First , let 's discuss the background of the man , described by ex-South African President Nelson Mandela as one of South Africa 's main achievers (BBC News 2001 ) who made this marked contribution to medicine

Barnard was the son of a clergyman , born on 8 November 1922 (Answers .com 2006

He grew up in a small town in the Karoo semi desert region of South Africa (BBC News 2001

From these humble beginnings he went on to study medicine first at the University of Cape Town and then the University of Minneapolis , where he switched from general surgery to cardiology and heart-lung surgery (BBC News 2001

On 3 December 1967 at Cape Town 's Groote Schuur Hospital , Dr Barnard and his team carried out the world 's first heart transplant (Holmes and Chapman , 2001

The patient was Louis Washkansky had only two days left to live when he received his donor heart from a 25 year old woman who had died in a car accident (Holmes and Chapman , 2001

Although Washkansky survived only 18 days after the operation (death was because his body had rejected the new heart , the pioneering surgery was hailed a success and Barnard achieved great fame , although this had not been his aim at the time of the operation (Holmes and Chapman , 2001

The operation was made more remarkable by the fact that it was achieved in South Africa by a South African from a small town , as opposed to a surgeon from a much larger country

The operation did not only spark awe and acclaim , but also concern and criticism as some felt it was done too early , and was experimental Barnard himself said , after the death of his patient I wouldn 't like to call this operation an experiment - it was the treatment of a sick patient . Although Washkansky died , I don 't think we have any evidence that transplantation is not good treatment for certain heart diseases (Swazey and Fox , 2004

Indeed , today there is positive evidence that transplantation IS good treatment for heart diseases : Approximately 1 ,600 heart transplants are performed each year in the United States (Miller , 1996

Within a very short space of time a number of American surgeons...