Professor Christian Cabrol, one of the French pioneers in heart transplantation, died at the age of 91.
He was part of the French medical heritage and will remain as one of the big names in international heart surgery. Professor Christian Cabrol died this Friday at the Pité-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris at the age of 91 following a long illness.
It was in this same hospital that Professor Cabrol performed the first heart transplant in Europe on April 27, 68. The 66-year-old patient died after 53 hours. Prof. Cabrol is on the heels of his colleague, Prof. Christian Barnard, author of the world premiere, for a few months. But above all, he is ahead of the French teams including that of Broussais, led by Professor Charles Dubost. The latter has in its ranks a certain … Alain Carpentier who will later become the “father” of the artificial heart Carmat. This second French transplant patient will survive 17 months.
All over the world, competition is raging. Faced with the Americans, French cardiology intends to make its mark. Professor Cabrol is one of the architects of this medical conquest. In 1982, he performed the first heart-lung transplant in France and relapsed in 1986 with the first implantation of a temporary artificial heart Jarvik 7.
The author of “My 400 heart transplants“is as jovial as he is angry. His interlocutors remember a great boss with a manly handshake. A bit like his mentor in politics, Jacques Chirac, whom he will join at the RPR. Elected councilor for Paris in 1989, he became a Member of the European Parliament in 1994. “He was extremely human and close to his patients,” recalls Professor Iradj Gandjbakhch, one of his former students.
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