Gettin' down to Cape Town: The Heart of Cape Town

Wednesday was the last day for most of our group. Now only me, Kelsey and Kathryn are left. In the morning, Colbey, Kelsey and I woke up early to venture off to the Heart of Cape Town museum; where the first heart transplant in the world took place. Awesome? I know.
The museum is located inside an actual hospital, also the real location of that first heart transplant. The surgery was performed by Chris Barnard- a South African surgeon. He was trained in heart transplant research in the US (U of Minnesota), but he did all his other training and cardio work in Cape Town. The man was super talented, but also quite rude. He was an egotistical genius. The first heart transplant was performed in 1967, by Dr. Barnard and 28 members of his team. They transplanted a heart from a young woman who was hit by a car into an older man suffering from terminal heart failure. He survived 18 days post surgery and eventually died from pneumonia (as a result of the anti-rejection medications suppressing his immune system). Barnard also performed the 3rd, 4th, and 6th transplants in the world; each patient lived longer than the last and the 6th patient was the first black woman to receive a heart and she lived 13 years after her surgery!
The museum was really cool, informative and actually kind of creepy because they have wax replicas of both of the surgical theaters used in the first transplant. Fun fact: the human replicas aren't actually wax- they are silicone- because wax would melt here in Africa during the summer! But they are freakily real looking, with real human hair and facial expressions and fake blood on cotton swabs. It was crazy.
The controversy surrounding Barnard's transplant involved competition with US doctors (surprise surprise) and backlash from the community about the holisticness of transplanting organs in general. The museum had letters congratulating him and criticizing his work.
After that we went back to the hotel, packed up Elaina and Colbey, ate lunch and sent them off. Then we rested the afternoon and went to a fairwell dinner for the Clark Atlanta ladies. The three of us that are left went to see a movie last night. We went in anticipation of seeing Crazy Stupid Love, only to find out that is doesn't open for a few weeks. So we stalled at a bar and saw Larry Crowne instead. It was enjoyable.