Happy Rebirthday
Today, I stood at the window again. It was blustery outside, chilly even this side of the pane. I’d thought that the wonderfully soaking rain of the preceding 48 hours across the Eastern Cape would have brought a calm
Extending SA’s Transplant Bequest to Our Own Children
(A composite article published in newspapers in April.) On October 11 last year, I received a donor heart in a transplant operation at the private Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital in Cape Town. I was the 216th heart recipient to come
Part Of Chris Barnard’s Contested legacy
I would never have been a fan of Professor Chris Barnard, growing up in the 1960s and ’70s. He was, after all, an Afrikaner male in a country ruled by Afrikaner men who made it their life’s mission to legally
PART 2 (Please read first): No place for old pessimists
PART 2 I am going to avoid making any comments about the facts in this post – a previous version came across as too arrogant, triumphalist even. Our family has taken to using H1, Heart 1, for my original, birth
A New Heart Brings New Meanings
I’m re-discovering the (personal) meaning of two words I thought I always knew until today. Gobsmacked. Surreal. I understood this afternoon for the first time what it means to be totally and completely gobsmacked, when I heard of the availability
Donor Heart Match – Transplant Slated for October 11, 2016
I have today been told by doctors at Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital that a donor heart is available for me and will be transplanted tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. Head of the heart transplant unit Dr Willie Koen brought the news just
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