Padua Marks 40 Years Since Italy’s First heart transplant With New Museum Exhibition
WORLD NEWS – ITALY: On the fortieth anniversary of a November 1985 phone call that changed cardiac surgery in the country, the Museo di Storia della Medicina di Padova opened an exhibition commemorating the team led by Professor Vincenzo Gallucci that carried out Italy’s first heart transplant. The show is curated in part by Professor Gino Gerosa, Gallucci’s surgical heir, who attended in his new role as the regional health assessor. Organ donation and its human consequences remain central to the anniversary.
Titled “Storie di cuore e di coraggio,” the exhibition blends history, technology and personal testimony. Visitors encounter interactive stations that measure heart rate, artworks that reflect surgical history, and a conversational avatar of a cardiac surgeon created for the display. Archival television footage from 1985 documenting the original procedure is presented alongside medical artifacts, anchoring the clinical breakthrough in its moment.
The exhibit foregrounds contemporary transplantation stories as well. It features Mirco Bernardinello, identified as the first Italian recipient of a transplant from a stopped heart in May 2023, and highlights how living recipients credit donors with giving new life. The curators and medical figures at the opening stressed the ongoing need to increase public acceptance of donation: recent identity-card renewal data show nearly 40 percent refusal to donate, a statistic organizers say underscores the urgency of better public information and education.
Organizers framed the show as both a celebration and a civic prompt to revive Padua’s medical heritage and public engagement. The anniversary was described as resonant beyond the city, touching families and communities nationwide, and serving as an occasion to spotlight modern cardiac surgery and the importance of saying yes to donation. The exhibition will remain on view at the museum through 22 May.
