Neither of the two previous patients to undergo heart-lung transplants lived for more than a few days after their operations. Still, South Africa's Dr. Christiaan Barnard had no hesitation about attempting the surgical spectacular last month. His patient, Adrian Herbert, 49, was near death from emphysema, and Barnard felt that the operation offered the only chance for survival (TIME, Aug. 9). Last week, 23 days after the operation, Herbert died at Cape Town's Groote Schuur Hospital.
Though the patient survived longer than the other two heart-lung recipients had, it was a desperate struggle almost...
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