Heart transplantation is a surgery that carries significant medical gravity and cultural mystique – even 53 years after Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful human-to-human heart transplant in South Africa.
My story revolves around Atlanta-area resident Harry Wuest and Dr. Douglas “Doug” Murphy. Wuest was the third heart transplant patient at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, 35 years ago. His doctor was Murphy, Emory’s first transplant surgeon, who became the world’s leading expert in robotically-assisted heart surgery.
Today, Wuest is the longest surviving heart transplant patient in Georgia and one of the longest surviving in the U.S.
The article combines the stories of Wuest and Murphy with a piece of U.S and Georgia medical history, touching, among other aspects, upon the so-called transplant wars between Atlanta area hospitals in the early days of heart transplantation. It also gives an overview of the research into alternatives to donated human hearts.
The story follows Wuest, who fell ill at age 28 with cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease. He lived with the condition for 12 years but finally ended up in Emory’s cardiac care unit where Murphy had just performed the hospital’s first two heart transplants. It was still “an all-or-nothing operation” back then, Murphy remembers in the article.
After his release from the hospital, Wuest gave his life a new turn. He went back to school to get his CPA license, divorced his first wife, and married one of his former nurses. He discovered a passion for golf and still works part-time as an accountant.
Heart transplantation and heart failure research have progressed since Murphy first sewed a new heart into Wuest. There are improved medications to suppress rejection and new methods of preserving and transporting donor hearts. There are also partial and total artificial hearts; xenotransplantation trials that involve transplanting animal cells and organs into humans; and regenerative stem cell therapy to help a damaged heart heal itself.
Interestingly, with all the progress that’s been made, long-term survival rates have not improved dramatically. The 10-year survival rate of heart transplant patients is around 55 percent. Even by today’s standards, the story of Harry Wuest is rare in the world of heart transplantation.
Update: Shortly after the article was published in February 2020, Harry Wuest got diagnosed with lung cancer. He received several rounds of chemotherapy and is doing well today. He looks forward to getting the COVID vaccine and going back on the golf course as soon as possible.