"[3] James Hardy at the University of Mississippi Medical Center had previously performed the world's first transplant of a human lung in June 1963.
He and the Medical School Dean Robert Marston jointly established conditions for a heart transplant which included that, since the procedure was highly experimental, they could only consider a patient close to death who had no other chance of survival.
[3] On January 21, 1964, 68-year old Boyd Rush was transferred to the University of Mississippi Medical Center after being found in a comatose state two nights earlier.
[3] On Jan. 23, it appeared as though Rush might receive a stroke of good luck, for there was a trauma victim in the hospital's ICU who was brain-dead and whose family had given permission for him to be a heart donor.
[3] Just after 2:00 am CST in the morning on Friday, January 24, 1964, Hardy completed the stitching to connect the chimpanzee heart into Rush's chest and used a defibrillator to achieve a steady beat.
Thompson, who was either his sister[3] or stepsister[11] was asked to sign the consent form which made no mention that an animal heart might be used.
[13][14] After this transplant attempt, the hospital's director of public information put out a guarded statement which included the phrase "the dimensions of the only available donor heart."
"[3] Almost four years after Hardy's attempt, Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur hospital in South Africa performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant on December 3, 1967.
The donor heart was from 25 year-old Denise Darvall who had been rendered brain dead after she and her mother had been struck by a drunk driver.