In December 1967, at Cape Town, Barnard removed the failing heart of Louis Washkansky and set in its place the heart of a young woman killed in a road accident. For eighteen days the borrowed heart beat on.
Washkansky died of pneumonia, his immune defences lowered against rejection, yet the threshold had been crossed. Barnard had shown that the heart, long held the seat of the self, could be exchanged like any other organ.