European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 2, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Christiaan bar reflections of a heart surgeon who turned cd press International t he Dusty Plains of Oklahoma remind. Chrisl Kum Gar Rind of the Karoo the great Plains of South Africa where he grew up and first became loss inhaled Wilh Medicine mow thousands of Miles from Home Burn a oddly familiar landscape this surgical Pioneer is taking a now direction True 10 character in is an unpredictable one. Arthritis in his hands arced him to quit surgery which was expected to has Law can up a research and Lectura Posl for the next Lew years Ai Baptist medical censer in. Oklahoma Coly. Bui to everyone s Surprise he has also become a cosmetics peddle. Glyce a Lino at anti aging skin care products bearing. His endorsement Hil the Market in the United states recently and now Barnard is in trouble again. A Good number of i colleagues squawking privately and on network television consider it a comedown. He is used to it All. My lather told me something i have always remembered Fie says an afrikaner expression it Means the highest Trees gel the most wind if you get a. Jot of criticism you must know you Are a High tree so it really does t worry me Lang hours in the lab and a drive to beat the Ijjas that claim human lives made Barnard the la Rel to demonstrate the origin of intestinal Alesia an abnormality of the digestive system that used to be fatal to , he is Lamous Lor the historic first heart transplant he performed dec. 3, 1967, but he also developed a treatment Lor tuberculosis meningitis two techniques for surgical heart repair and a syn Loti c heart valve. He was he first to introduce open hear surgery in Africa end later pioneered the piggyback transplant Impan Talon of a second heart to boost the patient sown. Mis admirers talk about his dedication and cite the Case of an Irish girl born with Only iwo Chambers 10 her heart when it should have had four,.Barnard was advised not to operate because Odds were she would die anyway and that would tie a Black Mark for him. But when he went to see the girl asked her what was wrong and she replied i Bava a broken heart he be t the room in tears and scheduled surgery. He studied her exposed heart for almost halt an hour before it occurred to him How he could reconstruct it. The girl went on to live a Normal Hie. The Man never seemed to Slop at one Point it was reported he was doing open heart surgery on More than 300 people a year. When he was i in the operating room he was teaching or to ravening or lecturing or doing research. He has attracted publicity and controversy wherever he has gone. His wide familiar smile has been seen in news pages around the world. In a More reflective state of mind now. The surgeon who has always looked too Young or his years sees his life More clearly. I think that the one thing i neglected was my lamely especially my parents when they were older. I was at that stage vary ambitious and working vary they re both dead now. The one thing than do regret is thai i did not spend Mare i me Wilh them he says. I also believe especially the children of my first family i next erred very much he says. His eldest son then 31, died two years ago of not entirely natural he had been on painkillers after Barnard 63, hot Given up us ratty. A Bat a research lecture pail at if Baptist it Deal censer of Oklahoma suffering compound fractures in an Aulo Accident and was found dead in the Bathtub. Barnard feels it he had spent. More Lime with the boy this would not have happened. I still think divorce is bad on to children. They need the stability of the Mother and the lather. He would have been More capable of coping Wilh situations in life had his parents stayed together Barnard says. Even my wives my sex wives Barnard there were things i hat i did As a result of my ambition which i think Hurt my relations with family and my sex wives. I miss my children a a says referring to his 12 and 14-year-old children who Llva in South Africa. I think we have children too Early in life we have them when we re ambitious and Busy and Don t really have. Lime to sea them grow up. If i could have things Over maybe t would do it better. Unfortunately you team by experience and often experience does t give you a second Chance. Barnard retired altogether three years ago from groote Schur Hospital in Cape town scene of the transplant that thrust him into the limelight. He blamed the rheumatoid a thrills that has stiffened and swollen his hands but also admitted the zest he once Felt when he began a heart operation had vanished. A believes he should have retired earlier. He had already Cut Back on his operating schedule at the time of the transplant because of the arthritis and was occasionally quoted As saying he thought a Only had a Lew More years left. But it was More than that. " you see he says to really be Abeledo. Something you must be hungry Tor that. You must get up in the morning wanting o do it. Around 1980, he was burned out from responsibility and having everybody looking Over your shoulder All the time to see what you were doing and How you were doing and whether you were doing it wrong whether you would remember the Days when Fust o put a pair of gloves on was just the greatest feeling in my life you know because i was hungry Lor la. To open the Chest was a great even even before i was Able to do the open heart procedure. All that became less and less important less and less exciting to where it eventually became a drag to do another heart operation. At that stage i should have at 63, Barnard looks so his face is barely lined and his hair is Reddish. The famous smile appears often but there is a barely perceptible edginess about him and a dullness around the eyes i hat could be testimony to 30. Years of arthritic pain. He will spend the next Lew years in Oklahoma City As scientist in residence doing research helping to expand the transplant program and doing one of the things he does Best talking with the goal of publicizing the need for donor organs. Characteristically he does not Lack for female companionship of the Lype that raises eyebrows. Karin Setzkorn a pretty blonde Cape town Model 41 years his Junior lives with him in a cottage behind one of the miniature estates in Nichols Hills an affluent residential area. Barnard s voice bearing heavy traces of afrikaner. The dutch based language of his youth swoops up to High notes and Down again
