Pioneering surgeon Vladimír Kočanderle dies

Pioneering Czech and international surgeon Vladimír Kočanderle has died at the age of 83. Kočanderle led the team I 1984 that carried out the first successful heart transplant in the then Czechoslovakia. Some of the preparation for that were made in the United States, including at the prestigious Stanford University. He also pioneered kidney and pancreas transplants. Kočanderle was for seven years the head of the Prague’s Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) until the early 1990s. A member of the ruling Communist party, Kočanderle said that his pioneering work would not have been possible without link to top party members.