On this day in 1986, the first heart transplant operation was performed at Bowman Gray/Baptist Hospital Medical Center.
The headlines the following day announced that a heart transplant was conducted in the evening of July 7th. The surgical team was led by Dr. A. Robert Cordell, head of the medical center’s cardiothoracic surgery section. The patient’s name was withheld in the initial announcement.
A spokesman for the medical center announced the previous June that the center was ready to perform heart transplants. The center had been preparing for the procedure for two years, and they had been screening patients for six months.
This heart transplant operation was the eighth performed in North Carolina. Three operations took place at Duke University’s Medical Center, and Charlotte Memorial Hospital performed four operations.
In the same July 8th newspaper, it was announced that Forsyth Memorial Hospital has asked for state approval to perform open-heart surgery.
The name of the heart transplant patient was released the following day, on July 9th. He was a Mocksville teenager and was reported to be in critical but stable condition.
The photo above shows the Reynolds Patient Tower at Baptist Hospital that opened in 1973, as part of a large building/remodeling campaign that began in the 1960s. The hospital has grown considerably since this photo was made.
Photo courtesy of Molly Grogan Rawls.
