The first heart transplant in Poland
Photographer: James L. Stanfield
Date: 1987
Location: Silesian Center for Heart Diseases, Zabrze
In 1987, Dr. Zbigniew Religa was photographed monitoring his patient after a 23 hour heart transplant, while a colleague slept from exhaustion nearby. The operation, considered highly risky at the time, was successful. The patient, Tadeusz Żytkiewicz, lived another 30 years and outlived the surgeon. Religa was a pioneer of heart transplantation in Poland and led the country’s first successful transplant. The photo, taken by James Stanfield during a report on Poland’s struggling healthcare system, was named National Geographic’s Photo of the Year and later included among the 100 most important photos in history.
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