Hamilton Naki

Hamilton Naki ( born June 26, 1926 in Ngcingane, † May 29, 2005 in Cape Town ) was a pioneer of Surgery and a member of the transplant team headed by Christiaan Barnard, the December 3, 1967, the first heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa succeeded. Due to the strict racial segregation in South Africa of the 1960s, the central contributions Nakis were at this milestone in medical history long withheld from the public.

Life

Hamilton Naki, born in the village Ngcingane in the Transkei, the school at the age of 14 years had to leave because the parents it could no longer afford to send their son to school. To find work, Naki shortly after went to Cape Town, where he first found work as a gardener at the University of Cape Town Medical School. His duties included, among other things, the tennis courts of the rich, white doctors maintain.

His medical career began in 1954 when he was asked by the director of the animal experimental laboratories Robert Goetz, who had fled from the Nazi era Germany to South Africa to assist in an operation on a giraffe. The surgeon present Quick fell on the dexterity and outstanding surgical skill of the colored laborer Naki, so that he became increasingly involved in surgical procedures. He was able to expand its methodological repertoire and his anatomical knowledge, so that it eventually took up the boy who just returned from the U.S. surgeon Christiaan Barnard in his transplant team.

According Nakis own account, he was also involved in the first successful heart transplant on the 3 December 1967, the team wrote history, and took it to the collection and preparation of the heart the more sophisticated part of the whole operation. This version was also common in the obituaries after his death. A few weeks later, however, the Economist published a correction, based on statements by doctors of the Groote Schur Hospital and a Naki source close to showing that he was not present at the operation, because as Coloured and medical layman absolutely no access to the operating rooms have had.

Because of apartheid in South Africa, the benefits Nakis remained secret for long. Even if he is seen to press after the successful transplantation in the background, he was always presented when requesting information as a cleaning lady. Barnard himself admitted many years later, shortly before his death, that Naki may not only have a better surgical talent possessed Himself, but also that were considered significant contributions in the development of new surgical techniques by Naki.

Until his retirement in 1991 Naki worked for the salary of a gardener of only 760 edge and did not have the ability to fund an adequate education to his children. Good contacts with more affluent peers in his profession use Naki but to raise money for school projects and a clinic on wheels in his home region, the Transkei. Late recognition of his services received Naki few years before his death with the receipt of the National Order of Mapungubwe and the award of an honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town in 2003.

Reception

In 2008, with Hidden Heart ( English Subtitle: "The Story of Christian Barnard and Hamilton Naki " ) was released a documentary that traces the history Nakis. As part of their research surveyed director Werner Swiss and the Zurich journalist Cristina Karrer witnesses and relied on archival footage.