türkçe links to original Turkish article
(Hürriyet Newspaper, 7 June 2019)
During the night of 2-3 December 1967, Dr. Christian Barnard
accomplished the first heart transplant operation in Cape Town,
South Africa. On 4 December, Dr. Barnard's historic success
was reported in Hürriyet newspaper and a Turkish singer named
Urfalı Babi even wrote a song about the event.
Meanwhile, in Tekirdağ shoemaker Ahmet Çuhacı was equally
astonished by Dr. Barnard's success so he wrote a letter to the
heart surgeon in care of Groote Schuur Hospital, dated 1 May 1968,
offering a pair of shoes as a congratulatory gift if Dr. Barnard would
just send him his shoe size (!). Ahmet Bey also offered to send
shoes for "sympathetic dentist Philip Blaiberg", who received the
second heart transplant and who lived for 18 months afterward.
There is now a museum in the Cape Town hospital, where Ahmet
Bey's letter is on display. A Turkish doctor who recently visited the
museum saw the letter and posted it on social media.
Hürriyet reporter Musa Kesler went to Tekirdağ to try to get to
the bottom of the story and he met with Fatma Çuhacı (70), the
widow of Ahmet Bey, who died 5 years ago. Fatma hanım said
she wasn't aware of her husband's letter to Dr. Barnard but she
related that "Ahmet was interested in such things. But I didn't
know he had written this letter. He didn't know English but he
had some friends who were doctors who knew it. He used to
participate in knowledge contests on the radio and even won a
trip to Europe. He went by himself because I had to look after
the children but when he got back he told me all about it. As I
said, he never mentioned the letter to Dr. Barnard but it was
just like him to do a thing like that."
Groote Schuur Hospital informed Hürriyet that they did not
know whether or not a response was sent to Ahmet Bey. They
added that they contacted Dr. Barnard's daughter about the
letter but she didn't have a recollection of it.
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