1 December 2017
How the first heart transplant led to critical illness cover
Fifty years ago – in the early hours of Sunday, December 3rd 1967 – the world’s first human heart transplant was carried out in Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa by a pioneering medical team led by Professor Christiaan Barnard.
The team, which included Professor Barnard’s younger brother Dr Marius Barnard, successfully removed the heart of 17-year-old road traffic victim Denise Durvall, and transplanted it into Louis Washkansky, a 55-year-old former businessman who’d had total cardiac failure.
Dr Marius Barnard went on to travel the world, training other surgeons and developing techniques to improve pediatric cardiovascular surgical procedures. But perhaps his greatest achievement outside of the operation was to help patients worldwide be better able to cope with the financial impact of illness.
As someone with a restless curiosity, he was interested in medical developments in fields other than his own, and it was this – together with his own medical experience – that enabled him to realise that advances in medical and pharmaceutical care would transform survival rates.
Whilst this would result in additional quantity of life, the same couldn’t be said for its quality, as the patients’ post-treatment ability to work and earn in many cases was impaired.
It was this concern for the financial vulnerability and health of his patients that motivated Dr Barnard to work with the insurance industry to develop a new form of insurance cover. One that admitted a claim on the diagnosis of life-changing and/or limiting health conditions; not solely on death from them. Arguing that, as a medical doctor, he could repair a man physically, but only insurers can repair a patient's finances.
This led to the launch of the world’s first critical illness insurance product on 6th August 1983, and he then took on a new role working around the world as a protection and health insurance product design consultant.
The Scottish Widows Protection team are proud that he chose to join us and from 2004 played an instrumental part in helping us develop our critical illness insurance philosophy, culture and products. His continuing influence can still be seen in our approach to critical illness cover shown in the Scottish Widows Protect product that we have today. With our aim to provide simple but comprehensive cover where and when it matters most for clients.
Improving the physical, mental and financial awareness, health and capability of advisers and consumers was very important to Dr Barnard. A promise he asked of myself, his family, friends and Scottish Widows colleagues was that we safeguard his ambition for critical illness insurance, as it’s still as relevant today as it was back then. And he asked that we continue to make available video collateral to educate and inform consumers about the development of both heart transplant surgery and critical illness insurance.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the first human-to-human heart transplant, Dr Barnard’s daughter, filmmaker Naudene Leisegang has created a documentary and we are delighted to share some short clips from it. When Naudene is next in the UK we will be holding a premiere of the film and we look forward to seeing you there.
Find out more
To find out more about Dr Marius Barnard and the development of critical illness insurance, I recommend “Defining Moments”: Marius Barnard’s autobiography.
The British Heart Foundation produce a monthly e-magazine called “Heart Matters”.
And to view the film we made with Dr Barnard to document the rationale for Critical Illness Insurance and the need for it click HERE.