A Heart-to-Heart With SA’s First Female Heart Transplant Surgeon

Half a century ago this year, one of the most momentous events in the history of humankind took place beneath the bright lights of an operating theatre at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. The first human heart transplant. While the dynamic Dr Christiaan Barnard would later downplay its significance, by insisting that “die hart is net ’n pomp”, the operation was seen at the time as a giant leap in scientific knowledge, equivalent to the first manned missions to the moon. It may be true that the heart is just a pump, but it is the very engine of life, and those who tinker with it to save and improve people’s lives are pioneers and heroes. Meet one of them: Dr Susan Vosloo, the first female heart surgeon in South Africa. She was only in her early 30s when she performed her first heart transplant, and she has since earned global acclaim for her work in the field, specialising in life-saving surgery on children as young as six months. Dr Vosloo sat down with Ruda Landman for a heart-to-heart chat in the BrightRock studio. What does it take for a young girl, whose primary interest in life is sewing, to become one of the best heart surgeons ion the world? Watch the video to find out.