I while back I did a South African stamp from the early 60s as they started to try to go it alone that made the case why it could work, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/21/south-africa-1966-a-tiny-minority-can-go-it-alone-because-they-have-diamonds-but-do-they/ . In 1991 the writing on the wall was more clearly read and South Africa was transitioning to majority rule. So why not look back at some things South Africa achieved going it alone. There was stuff to talk about, like gold mines, but how about medical breakthroughs. Stamps can teach this stamp collector. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This stamp shows the achievement of the first human to human heart transplant in 1967. There was a 1969 stamp showing Dr. Christian Barnard the man who performed it. He gained some notoriety after the achievement and his behavior perhaps is why he was edited out here. As a white South African on the world stage, the world simply demanded that he condemn his own country. He duly Shat on his country even going on a black Africa tour to do it. He of course wanted a Nobel Prize and probably was personally politically liberal. It did not work. He did not get a Nobel. The bow and scrape dance must have earned Dr. Barnard much credibility among South Africa’s majority? No his death in 2001 did not merit a memorial stamp. Interestingly, at least to me, was that his liberal 1960s position was that South Africa should be divided to give blacks homelands, the 1980s policy, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/02/20/bophuthatswana-1985-the-tswana-people-get-industrious-in-the-bop/ .
Todays stamp is issue A276, a 25 cent stamp issued by South Africa on May 30th, 1991. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog. the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
Dr. Christian Barnard was trained and practiced in Cape Town. A hospital in Minnesota, having had good luck with another South African doctor, sought more and got Dr. Barnard for a few years, There he became involved in a top flight heart institute. The field of transplanting hearts seemed life changing. In 1954, the heart of a chimpanzee had been transplanted into a human and beated but the man died 90 minutes later never having woken up. Probably for the best that. Several teams in America and now Barnard’s team in South Africa transplanted one dogs heart into another. A small percentage lived. Dr. Barnard in 1967 was ready to try on humans. He convinced those involved there was an 80% chance of success. The heart of a brain dead 25 year old woman that had been hit by a car was put in a 57 year old man near death from hypertension and diabetes. In the women’s last minutes she had ice water poured in her ear to look for any reaction. The transplant was successful and the man woke up with the new heart. He died a few weeks later from pneumonia brought on by the anti rejection drugs.
Dr. Barnard was now famous. He divorced his wife and married a string of young models. He even claimed to have had a one night stand with Gina Lolabrigida while in Rome to have an audience with the Pope. His reputation sank over time as it became obvious that heart transplants were not a long term success for patients. He further lowered himself when he began promoting an anti aging creme. Country’s don’t get to cast their heroes
The reason heart transplants didn’t work is theorized that the patients brain had adjusted to the original damaged heart and those instuctions continued to the new healthy heart. Soon enough the new heart was itself bad.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the team at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. It still exists and still uses that name. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.