Transplant Buccaneers
P.K. Sen and India’s First Heart Transplant, February 1968
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9089778 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David S Jones (0000-0003-0039-7784, Department of the History of Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, corresponding author), Kavita Sivaramakrishnan (0000-0002-5584-2585, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York City, New York, and the Department of History, Columbia University, New York City, New York, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 303-332 |
| Publication date | 2018-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-5045 • E-ISSN: 1468-4373 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jhmas/jrx059 |
| PMID | 29329407 |
| OpenAlex | W2784142717 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 4 |
On 17 February 1968, Bombay surgeon Prafulla Kumar Sen transplanted a human heart, becoming the fourth surgeon in the world to attempt the feat. Even though the patient survived just three hours, the feat won Sen worldwide acclaim. The ability of Sen's team to join the ranks of the world's surgical pioneers raises interesting questions. How was Sen able to transplant so quickly? He had to train a team of collaborators, import or reverse engineer technologies and techniques that had been developed largely in the United States, and begin conversations with Indian political authorities about the contested concept of brain death. The effort that this required raises questions of why. Sen, who worked at a city hospital in Bombay that could not provide basic care for all its citizens, sought a technology that epitomized high-risk high-cost, health care. To accomplish his feat, Sen navigated Cold War tensions and opportunities, situating his interests into those of his hospital, municipal authorities, Indian nationalism, Soviet and American authorities, the Rockefeller Foundation, and others. The many contexts and interests that made Sen's work possible created opportunities for many different judgments about the success or failure of medical innovation.
Health care · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Work (physics) · Engineering · Law · Medicine · Organ Donation and Transplantation
| Citations per year | 1.13 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2024 (7) |
| Highly cited | No |