Chilean transplant pioneer Jorge Kaplán dies

SANTIAGO.- Doctor Jorge Kaplán, who is widely renowned by his peers for being the first doctor to successfully transplant a heart in Chile, passed away early this morning at the Clínica Reñaca medical center.

Kaplán, who also served as the Mayor of Viña del Mar during the 1990s, died at the age of 82 after a long battle with health problems. The doctor's daughter, Marcela Kaplán, was the one who confirmed his death.

According to the Clínica Reñaca, Doctor Kaplán died at 4:10 am this morning "as a result of complications related to heart failure".

Authorities at the medical center have said that the former mayor was hospitalized at the clinic on March 30th of this year and remained hospitalized for the remainder of his life.  In January of this year, Kaplán was also hospitalized at the same facility due to heart problems.

Kaplán went down in Chilean medical history on June 28th of 1968, when he successfully implanted the heart of 22 year-old Gabriel Véliz in the chest of 24 yea-old María Elena Peñaloza.

The surgery, which lasted 2 hours and 49 minutes, was of the first of its kind in the world.