Pioneer heart surgeon Brian Barratt-Boyes is our New Zealander of the Year for performing the first open-heart surgery in New Zealand.
The patient, Helen Harris, nee Arnold, of Christchurch, was just 9 when she travelled to Green Lane hospital for the first of two operations to close a hole between the chambers of her heart, which had caused breathlessness, lack of energy and restricted growth. Without surgery she would be lucky to make it to her 40th birthday, but she was still alive 50 years later when Herald medical reporter Martin Johnston interviewed her.
Sir Brian died in 2006 aged 82. It is now estimated more than 2500 open-heart surgeries are done in New Zealand each year.
"Sir Brian was one of the doyens of cardiac surgery, who pioneered techniques ... that made it possible to safely achieve the volume that takes place today," Paget Milsom, the clinical director of Auckland City Hospital's cardiothoracic surgical unit, said.
