35 years since first successful heart transplant in Poland

Thirty-five years ago the first successful heart transplant was carried out in Poland, performed by Professor Zbigniew Religa at a clinic in the southern city of Zabrze.

Zbigniew Religa, pictured in 2008.

Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Michałowski

The donor was a brain-dead man in a coma, the recipient a 62-year-old farmer. 

The first heart transplant attempt in Poland had already taken place in 1969, two years after a historic operation by South Africa's Christiaan Barnard. 

Elżbieta Krajewska has more...