Dr Christiaan Barnard, the South African surgeon who performed the world's first human heart transplant, died yesterday while on holiday in Cyprus. He was 78.
Dr Barnard died at 11 a.m. local time as he was relaxing by a swimming pool at a hotel in the western resort of Paphos. By-standers rushed to his aid, but he was already dead.
"Dr Christiaan Barnard died this morning ... The causes of death are not known but the chances are that it was a heart attack or some such nature," the Health Minister, Mr Frixos Savvides, said. "It is more or less likely that death was caused by cardiac arrest."
Dr Barnard, who was a regular visitor to Cyprus, had been staying at the Coral Beach Hotel for three days.
Dr Barnard, a doctor-turned-playboy in his early days who was seen with the likes of movie stars Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, divorced his third wife in 1999.
Dr Barnard made medical history in December 1967 with the world's first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky (56), who lived for 18 more days before dying of pneumonia.
Dr Barnard was born on October 8th, 1922, to a struggling missionary family. He studied medicine at the University of Cape Town and at the University of Minnesota in the US, where he switched from general surgery to cardiology and heart-lung surgery.
Before performing surgery on Washkansky in 1967, Dr Barnard had spent many years experimenting with heart transplantation, operating mainly on dogs.
Rheumatoid arthritis forced him to give up surgery in 1983.
He spent his last years writing books, consulting, giving lectures and dividing his time between Europe and his farm in South Africa's Cape Province. He is survived by four children.
The former South African president, Mr Nelson Mandela, yesterday expressed shock and sorrow at the death of Dr Barnard.
"His death is a great loss to the country after all the contributions he made.
He was also very vocal against apartheid," Mr Mandela said at his Johannesburg home.