The first heart transplant was in 1967 in South Africa by Dr. Christiaan Barnard on a middle aged man whose donor was a young women who had been killed in a motor vehicle accident. The man was live for 18 days before dying from pneumonia as a consequence of a weakened immune system by the anti-rejection drugs; the drugs he was given so that his body would not reject the new heart. The second heart transplant, but first of its kind in the United states, occurred a year later in 1968 by Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz; unfortunately, his patient only lived a couple of hours. Patients with heart disease were among the first in line for this procedure and hoped the method would soon be perfected. Dr. Barnard's second try at heart transplantation was a success and it almost seemed that it would become a regular procedure when his next patient lived for 18 months. The only problem surgeons faced were the difficulties after surgery, the heavy anti-rejection drugs weakened the patients tremendously leaving them susceptible to bacteria, viruses and other diseases. It was calibrated that by the year of 1971, there was only a 1% change of survival with this procedure after most patients perished from infections and organ rejection.