Many people remember the beaming face of Christiaan Barnard the South African surgeon after he performed the first human heart transplant and captured the worlds imagination.

It was a stunning achievement but he was not alone.

In truth it was a fourway race a fierce struggle fraught with passionate rivalry.

The other three surgeonsAdrian Kantrowitz Norman Shumway and Richard Lowerwere giants in the field and by early December 1967 they and Barnard were each poised to snatch the victors laurels.

Each had spent years perfecting techniques that would lead to a successful heart transplant each had monitored his chosen patients condition watching the clock hoping a donor would be found in time.

Some of these men were friends others were enemies.

Only one of them would be the first.

From a dank under equipped hospital in Cape Town to a cramped lab in San Francisco the surgeons worked their own individual miracles to prolong their patients lives testing the limits of science and nature itself.

Product Details Paperback Book Author Donald McRae Genre History ISBN 9780743239950