the baldian 33
Mr Naki left school as a child and started working as a gardener at the hospital in Cape Town in South Africa.
As well as looking after the garden, he started taking care of the animals used in the lab experiments.
Very slowly, he began to give the animals anaesthetics, stitch their wounds and carry out other suchlike tasks.
He was so skilful that the doctors gave him permission to start operating on the animals.
When in 1967, Doctor Barnard performed the first heart transplant, Hamilton Naki was part of the team of surgeons that removed the heart from the young donor named Denise.
Under the Apartheid, that was a crime and officially, Mr Naki was always a gardener.
Before his death Doctor Barnard said the following “Mr Naki was technically a better surgeon than me, and he was also a great researcher. In another society he would
probably have gone onto much greater achievement.”
In 2002 the South African Government awarded him The Bronze Order of Mapungubwe for his contribution to medicine.
However, until his death in 2005, he received a gardener’s pension.
As well as looking after the garden, he started taking care of the animals used in the lab experiments.
Very slowly, he began to give the animals anaesthetics, stitch their wounds and carry out other suchlike tasks.
He was so skilful that the doctors gave him permission to start operating on the animals.
When in 1967, Doctor Barnard performed the first heart transplant, Hamilton Naki was part of the team of surgeons that removed the heart from the young donor named Denise.
Under the Apartheid, that was a crime and officially, Mr Naki was always a gardener.
Before his death Doctor Barnard said the following “Mr Naki was technically a better surgeon than me, and he was also a great researcher. In another society he would
probably have gone onto much greater achievement.”
In 2002 the South African Government awarded him The Bronze Order of Mapungubwe for his contribution to medicine.
However, until his death in 2005, he received a gardener’s pension.
