Quotes by Cardiac Surgeons

Suffering isn't ennobling recovery is.

Christian N. Barnard

The prime goal is to alleviate suffering and not to prolong life. And if your treatment does not alleviate suffering but only prolongs life that treatment should be stopped.

Christian Barnard

For a dying man it is not a difficult decision [to agree to become the world's first heart transplant] ... because he knows he is at the end. If a lion chases you to the bank of a river filled with crocodiles, you will leap into the water convinced you have a chance to swim to the other side. But you would not accept such odds if there were no lion.

Christiaan Barnard

Of the many 'firsts' with which I have been involved at the Texas Heart Institute —including the first successful human heart transplant in the United States and the first total artificial heart transplant in the world—the achievement that may have the greatest impact on health care did not occur in the operating room or in the research laboratory. It happened on a piece of paper... when we created the first-ever packaged pricing plan for cardiovascular surgical procedures.

Denton Cooley

It is infinitely better to transplant a heart than to bury it to be devoured by worms.

Christiaan Barnard

I've always felt that I did well as a student because I lacked confidence.

Denton Cooley