Career
Specifically, he was one of the surgeons who removed the heart from donor Denise Darvall at Groote Schuur Hospital. After a 2009 documentary film Hidden Heart suggested that Hamilton Naki removed the donor heart, Barnard was quoted as describing the film as "rubbish, a joke, it’s a total distortion of the facts" and as stating that Naki was at the time "in his bed, about 8 km away from Groote Schuur". Barnard was motivated by the financial hardship he saw his patients suffer after he had treated their critical illnesses to convince the South African insurance companies to introduce a new type of insurance to cover critical illnesses.
Barnard argued that, as a medical doctor, he can repair a man physically, but only insurers can repair a patient"s finances.
On 6 August 1983 the first critical illness insurance policy was launched. He later acted as a technical consultant for Scottish Widows.
He died on November 14, 2014.