3. First successful heart transplant in a child
On June 9, 1984, the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons performed the first successful pediatric heart transplant. The first heart transplant on an adult was performed in 1967 by South African surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard, but just three days later Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz performed an unsuccessful heart transplant on a child. Another pediatric heart transplant in 1984 was unsuccessful as well, as the child survived for just 18 days. Dr. Eric Rose, then chair of Columbia’s Department of Surgery, worked to establish a pediatric heart transplant program in 1977, and in 1983, the FDA approved a drug called cyclosporine, which would prevent organ rejection.
The patient was named James Lovette, who suffered from a fatal condition called “single ventricle,” in which one of the heart chambers is missing. The donor heart came from a four-year-old boy named John Ford, who died after falling from a New York apartment after a fire. Cyclosporine helped Lovette stay alive, as he survived for 21 years after his surgery despite surviving both Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and a second heart transplant. Lovette went on to receive a master’s degree, but he died just one week after starting medical school.