Zbigniew Religa was a revolutionary of his time and a mentor for generations of Polish transplantologists and cardiologists. On 5 November 1985, in Zabrze, Religa performed the first successful heart transplant in Poland’s history. He was assisted by a team including Andrzej Bochenek, Jerzy Wołczyk, Marian Zembala and Bogusław Ryfiński.

Zbigniew Religa was born in 1938 in Miedniewice, near Żyrardów.

He studied medicine and successfully graduated in 1963. For several years, he worked at the Wolski Hospital in Warsaw, where he obtained key experience in surgery.

The real turning point of Religa’s career came when he was able to visit the USA. He first travelled there in the early 1970s to work at the  Long Island Mercy Medical Center, under the supervision of another Polish doctor, Professor Adam Wesołowsk, who came from the 4th generation of Polish emigrants in the country. 

He went back to learn and practice in the US again in 1975 and applied for a residency in the department of cardiac surgery at a hospital in Detroit. There, he cooperated with Adrian Kantrowit, who at that time was considered one of the world’s most notable surgeons.

After the end of his residency, he was offered the opportunity to stay and work in Detroit, but he chose to return to Poland.

A couple of years later, Religa received an offer to head the Department of Cardiology at the Regional Cardiology Centre in Zabrze. He created a team of people he was able to choose, including doctors who relocated from Warsaw and other parts of Poland.

In Zabrze, Religa worked hard to become ready to be able to perform the first heart transplant in Poland. 

Interestingly, Religa, who declared himself an atheist, faced dilemmas of a religious nature concerning the procedures. He discussed that problem with the famous Polish priest and philosopher of the period, Father Józef Tischner.

The early days of transplantation techniques were difficult, with numerous ethical concerns among doctors. The first successful transplant operation was performed by Dr Joseph E. Murray, who performed a successful kidney transplant in 1954. 

The first heart transplant attempt was performed in 1967 by Dr Christiaan Nethling Barnard in Cape Town, but the patient died shortly after the procedure.

The real breakthrough came with the invention of cyclosporine, a medicine that weakened the immune system to allow the body to accept new tissue without endangering the patient’s life.

The first successful Polish transplant patient was a 62-year-old farmer from Krzepice, struggling with serious cardiac failure. When his health declined to a critical level, a heart transplant became the only hope for his survival. 

The surgery was performed by Prof. Religa and his team on 5 November 1985. 

In communist Poland, it was almost impossible to perform such a procedure. It required the donor to be relatively young and to have a healthy heart, and it was extremely difficult to obtain consent for organ donation.

“Professor Religa carried out the procedure with extreme precision and calmness. The heart transplant operation lasted many hours and proceeded without bleeding. The heart started beating, the kidneys started working, and the patient was transferred to the recovery room. We all felt great joy,” Prof. Andrzej Bochenek recalled. 

Religa was quick to inform the media about the success to increase the awareness about transplantology and medical progress. Unfortunately, the first patient died after a week from the surgery.

It was finally the fourth patient of the procedure who survived and lived for 30 years after the transplant surgery and even outlived Religa himself. That surgery was performed in 1987. 

In 1993, at the personal request of Lech Wałęsa, he joined his party, called the Non-Partisan Reform Support Bloc and ran for the Senate.

In 2005, after he ran in presidential elections (without success), Religa accepted the offer to become the Health Minister in Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and Jarosław Kaczyński’s cabinets formed by the coalition of Law and Justice (PiS), Samoobrona and Liga Polskich Rodzin parties. 

On 18 December 2008, Zbigniew Religa was awarded the Order of the White Eagle by President Lech Kaczyński.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer (Religa was famous for his constant smoking) in March 2007. He died on 8 March 2009. 

Source: Dzieje.pl, Onet, Muzeum Historii Polski

Photo: @fasc1nate James Stanfield in 1987 after the first successful heart transplant surgery in Poland

Tomasz Modrzejewski