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He performed the first successful heart transplant in Poland and a simultaneous heart and lung transplant. He was close to becoming not a doctor, but a philosopher or journalist. He survived every operation. When 11 patients died, and a 30-year-old child after a 4-hour operation, he entered the doctors’ office, opened a bottle of cognac and drank it gully.
- 37 years ago, on November 5, 1985, Zbigniew Religa, a cardiac surgeon, performed the first successful heart transplant in Poland. The operation was a breakthrough in Polish medicine
- «The heart is simply a piece of meat. What is most beautiful begins to happen later, when blood is shed »- said prof. Zbigniew Religa. In his youth, he did not plan to become a doctor. He considered studying philosophy or journalism
- After the first successful heart transplant, Professor Religa was still a pioneer of Polish cardiosurgery, performing the first lung and heart transplant in Poland, performing procedures for the treatment of chronic pulmonary embolism, he also created a prototype of an artificial heart and a biological valve
- You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page
Professor Religa recalled: “It was the first time that we got a still-beating heart, despite the great resistance of the medical community. Earlier, kidney transplants were carried out in Poland, but these organs were collected only from people whose hearts had stopped working. For it was believed that the person whose heart beats is still alive “.
1985 was a breakthrough year not only because of the successful operation. It was then that, for the first time in Poland, a committee meeting was to pronounce brain death. It was also the first time in the country that this medical term was used as the basis for recognizing human death.
Religa also had to reckon with moral resistance. He recalled the conversation with the donor’s mother: “It was a great experience – both for me and for her. After all, she was supposed to be the first such mother in Poland ».
Holy professor
In his youth, he did not plan to become a doctor. He considered studying philosophy or journalism. It was the parents who convinced the young Religa that the profession of a philosopher was not very practical. And although he did not believe that he would be admitted to medicine, he passed the exams to the Medical Academy in Warsaw on the first attempt. His first independent surgery was an appendectomy.
Zbigniew Religa differed from other professors from the 80s. Tall, slightly hunched over, with a lush mane that he did not cut at the hairdresser. His hair was cut all his life by his mother, then his wife. He was not haughty, the patients were not afraid to approach him and talk. He did not care for himself, he dressed carelessly.
He allowed young surgeons to operate on their own, because he assumed that his successors had to be trained. He did not see his competitors in them.
He was an unbeliever, but the word “holy” stuck to him. “He was a holy man,” his patients said about him. And doctors often mentioned that he had “holy patience with his patients.”
The heart is a piece of meat
At the Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw, Religa was probably the first in Poland to implant patients with a then new device – a pacemaker.
Open-heart surgeries were quite a challenge in the old days, as they were performed without the use of extracorporeal circulation, the facility did not have a heart-lung machine.
Many years after the famous surgery, when asked by Gazeta Wyborcza what he felt, holding a human heart in his hands, he said: “Chill! This heart is cold, because when preparing for a transplant, it is cooled down to 4-8 degrees Celsius. It’s just a piece of meat. What is most beautiful begins to happen later, when blood is shed ”.
The most beautiful is the heartbeat: “For me, it is a miracle of nature when the heart in an empty chest begins to beat and keep the circulation going”.
He smoked like a dragon
Many hours of operations, stress and fatigue were the bread and butter of Religa. To relieve himself, he smoked cigarettes. In huge quantities, up to two packages a day. Religa himself publicly admitted that he smoked like a dragon. But he did not even think about quitting the addiction, he only declared that no one would see him with a cigarette in an official situation.
Not all operations were successful for the professor. He once died 11 patients consecutively, and after a thirty-hour operation, a 4-year-old child. Then Religa entered the doctor’s room, opened a bottle of cognac and gulped it down.
In one of the interviews he admitted that he was one step away from alcoholism: “Alcohol gave a feeling of reacting to everything that was outside for a few hours. I felt that I was approaching a dangerous border, but never crossed it. There was a moment when I found myself thinking about going home and having a drink at work. Then I knew it was time to do something about it. And I just did it. I said to myself: no alcohol from tomorrow ».
The author of the photo: prof. Religi (above) – Krzysztof Miller, Agencja Gazeta
Famous photo
There is a famous photo where you can see Religa sitting in the operating room. The photo captured the end of a dozen or so hours of heart transplant surgery. The professor looks closely at the monitor showing the patient’s heartbeat, and his extremely exhausted assistant sleeps in the corner of the room.
This moment was captured by James L. Stanfield, a National Geographic photographer on the night of August 4-5, 1987, at Professor Religa’s clinic in Zabrze.
National Geographic magazine wrote about the history of this picture: “After 23 hours and 22 rolls of film, photographer James Stanfield knew he had finally taken a perfect picture. He managed to catch Religa’s anxious gaze as he followed the vital signs of a patient after a heart transplant. > I never take my eyes off him and I never turn my back on him. This is my payment <- this is what Prof. Religa ".
The photo was named Best Photo of 1987 by National Geographic. A dozen or so years later, this magazine recognized her as one of the hundred most important photographs in history.
Minister of Health
In 2005, Religa became the minister of health, he was to take care of the health and lives of 38 million Poles. His goal was to heal the Polish health service.
He often emphasized in public statements that prevention is very important. However, he himself underestimated his own ailments. One day he heard the diagnosis: lung cancer.
The disease was discovered at an early stage. Religa said: «The fact that I was diagnosed with cancer so early I owe it to my secretary. It was she who persuaded me to get tested ”.
Religa was operated on in 2007, but two years later the cancer defeated the professor.
In one of the last interviews he confessed: “There is no point in treating me by force. I want to die comfortably, that is, at home, in such a way as not to suffer. » And so it happened, the professor left as he wanted: among his loved ones, in his apartment in Warsaw’s Powiśle. He managed to say goodbye to friends and colleagues.
The funeral was secular, and on the professor’s last journey his favorite song, “What a Wonderful World”, was played.
This may interest you:
- The six-month-old boy underwent heart and thymus transplantation. This is the first such operation in the world
- “With my body I warmed what was supposed to give me life”
- «I gave my wife a kidney so that we could live normally. It was the best way »