Medical Research and the First Heart Transplant in the South

The Racial Equity series provides the link between history and current day health inequities and disparities experienced by people in our community. This educational content was donated by the History and Health programming at the VCU Office of Health Initiatives.

The first human organ transplant, a kidney, took place in 1954. By the 1960s, the human heart transplant was on the medical horizon. On December 3, 1967, a large team led by cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard, who had trained in Richmond, VA under Drs. David Hume and Richard Lower, performed the world’s first human-to-human (allogeneic) heart transplant in Capetown, South Africa. On May 25, 1968, an MCV team led by cardiac surgeon Dr. Richard Lower performed the first human-to-human heart transplant in the South. This was the sixteenth heart transplant in the world. The heart of African American laborer Bruce Tucker, who had suffered a severe head injury, deemed by physicians of the time to be an unrecoverable injury,  was transplanted into Joseph Klett, a white businessman. As recent articles reveal, neither Bruce Tucker nor his family consented to the transplant.

Christiaan Barnard performs the first human heart transplant at Groote Shuur Hospital, Cape Town Source: British Heart Foundation

Objectives

• Understand the significance of surgeons David Hume and Richard Lower in kidney and heart transplantation in the U.S., especially in the first heart transplant in the U.S., which took place in Virginia in May 1968.
• Identify the social inequities surrounding Bruce Tucker and what led to his role in the first heart transplant in the South.
• Learn about the first organ transplant in the South in the historical context of racial inequality, segregation, and African American skepticism in the 1960s regarding heart transplants.

Read the following brief articles to learn about the history of transplantation, the two transplant pioneers at MCV, Dr. Richard Lower and Dr. David Hume, and the African American factory worker Bruce Tucker, whose heart was transplanted into the body of a successful white businessman in Richmond, VA, in 1968 without the consent of him or his family.

Landmark transplant in 1960s Virginia performed with heart stolen from a Black man. (10 minutes)

When a Black Man’s Heart Was Transplanted Without Consent. (10 minutes)

Learn about the transplant team and process, how organ allocation works, and delve into the history of transplantation. (15 minutes). This resource also offers a useful timeline of the first successful transplants: kidney (1954), pancreas/kidney (1966), liver (1967), pancreas (1968), heart (1968), heart/lung (1981), single lung (1983), double lung (1986), living liver (1989), living lung (1990).

How a Historic Heart Transplant Exposed a Troubling Truth About Race and Health in America. (10 minutes)

Fronteras: The Heart Transplant Race Of The 1960s Came With A Cost — Black Body Experimentation. (20-minute podcast)

This episode is reflective of Virginia’s (and Richmond’s) long history of racism, racial segregation, and mistreatment of people of color by the medical establishment in the U.S. As these resources (and the recommended books and videos at the end of this module) document, other practices such as grave robbing are foundational to the first medical schools in the U.S., including the MCV campus where Bruce Tucker died. These materials also illustrate the legacy of the second-class medical treatment of Black Americans, further documented by recent statistics on the disproportionately high death rate of Black Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Watch this 16 minute video, Beyond the Organ Thieves, which tells of the events and programs that have been launched over the past 50 years at the VCU Medical Center since the first heart transplant was performed in 1968.

SUGGESTED BOOKS

The Racial Divide in American Medicine: Black Physicians and the Struggle for Justice in Health Care . (2020) by Richard D. deShazo

Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race, and Injustice.(2020) by Andrea Freeman

Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care. (2015) by Dayna Bowen Matthew

Against Their Will: The Secret History of Medical Experimentation on Children in Cold War America.(2013) by Allen M. Hornblum, Judith L. Newman, and Gregory J. Dober

The Red Market: On the Trail of the World’s Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers.(2011) by Scott Carney

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. (2010) by Rebecca Skloot

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.(2006) by Harriet A. Washington

SUGGESTED VIDEOS: 

Lecture by Dayna Bowen Matthew at Baker Institute, Rice University. “Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in the U.S. Health Care.” At this event, Dayna Bowen Matthew, William  Matheson and Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor of Law at University of Virginia School of Law, explores strategies for reducing health disparities:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRKRfcqEXLY.

Black News Channel: Author of “The Organ Thieves,” Chip Jones chats with BNC Anchor Brittany Jones about new book,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_tMDxDXo8E.

Author Chip Jones on the history of American healthcare in the segregated South (on Virginia This Morning) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5fOyobZ-rA

South Florida PBS interview with Chip Jones,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbKcxyyAZCg.

History and Health: Racial Equity hosted a virtual panel that examined the first transplant in the South in the historical context of racial inequality and segregation while also exploring the changes and advances in transplantation in the 21st century. Moderator Dr. Carlos Smith, director, Diversity, Ethics and Inclusion at VCU School of Dentistry led a conversation with panelists Dr. Phillip Duncan, medical director at the Cardiac Management Health Network, Dr. John McCarty, director of VCU Massey Cancer Center’s Cellular Immunotherapies and Transplant Program, and Jodi Koste, University Archivist. Following the panel, there was a facilitated discussion.

This event was presented as part of the History and Health: Racial Equity Speaker Series. The VCU Humanities Research Center. co-sponsors this event with the VCU Office of Health Equity.

History and Health events and educational content is created in collaboration with the Health Humanities Lab at the Humanities Research Center. This module is authored by Cristina Stanciu, Ph.D.,  Associate Professor of English and Director, Humanities Research Center. All modules undergo a rigorous curriculum peer review process.

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