May
I'm doing a presentation in school, and I need to know how the first heart transplant in 1967 performed by Christiaan Barnard in South Africa affected the U.S. I need good detail for this. Thanks! 
Answer:
In the view of some experts, perhaps Dr. Barnard's most important medical contribution was his courage to proceed with a human heart transplant at a time when other surgeons who had performed the operation only on animals continued to hesitate to be the first to transplant a heart in a human.
But to one heart transplant pioneer, Dr. Norman E. Shumway of Stanford University, Dr. Barnard's surgical feat was outweighed by his decision to select as the first heart donor a brain-dead accident victim.
''It made the use of brain-dead victims acceptable for organ transplantation'' because at the time ''there was a terrible furor about the brain death issue in the United States,'' Dr. Shumway said in an interview yesterday.
District attorneys had threatened to arrest surgeons who took organs from brain-dead individuals.
So, Dr. Shumway stated, brain surgeons ''at Stanford and other institutions would disconnect the patient from a respirator, continue their rounds and, 20 minutes later, when the patient's heart had stopped, declare the patient dead, which, of course, was ridiculous.''
''Without Dr. Barnard's initial use of the brain-dead patient, we could not have gone ahead'' to make heart transplants a standard therapy, Dr. Shumway said. ''It was a monumental advance, more societal perhaps than medical, because it applied to all organ transplants.''
“The meeting in Chicago began in the early afternoon of
December 28. Numerous photos of the event were made by Dr.Rollo Hanlon, a heart surgeon. A composite shows Christiaan Barnard nearly backed up to the door, pressed for answers posed by several of his colleagues in the U.S. Their tone was that of instructors who were piqued that a pupil had dared to do “their” experiment first.”
I personally remember when this happened. It was very sensational. He became what we would call today, 'a rock star' in the good old USA. The news from the medical community, as I remember it, was one of enthusiasm, but at the same time reserved..
I remember the hope it gave people. The fascinating accounts were on Television news nightly and everyone was glued to the set.
Answer:
It was a big step forward, making significant advances on the first heart transplant, which was done by Dr. James Hardy at the University of Mississippi. It established new ground upon which the teams at Stanford and in Houston built their reputations.