While much is said of the success in the world's first heart transplant operation occurring in a South African hospital using South African surgeons, history is playing a very one-sided role.
Dr Chris Barnard, who had his typical Afrikaans accent, beat his USA counterpart, cardiac surgeon Dr Adrian Kantrowitz, by a few hours, and summed it up as "like we were at a swimming pool and we jumped in first".
Credit needs to be given to Chris's brother, Dr Marius Barnard, who was also a great pioneer and, in fact, instrumental in the disability and medical aid schemes we have today.
His motto was "your physical health is taken care, but what of your financial health?".
As for the heart transplant, Dr Marius Barnard had to harvest the heart from the donor and Dr Chris Barnard did the transplant.
Had the harvesting been unsuccessful, there would have been no Chris Barnard as we know him.
Some hospital in SA should be named after Marius Barnard specifically.
All media reports should reflect this as a joint achievement of the Barnard brothers and not just the effort of Dr Chris Barnard, who reflected only on his achievements and ignored the rest, and was a bit arrogant after his success.
Dr Marius Barnard had a bigger, if not similar, role.