The first heart transplant was conducted by Professor Josip Sokolic and a team of medical professionals and nurses at Zagreb's University Hospital Centre on 30 September 1988.
The head of the Cardiac Surgery at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Doctor Bojan Biocina, said at a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the first heart transplant on Wednesday that Croatia has 10 heart transplants per one million inhabitants, which places it among top countries in terms of the number of heart transplants per capita.
When it comes to waiting lists, patients who are in urgent need of therapy wait for heart transplantation a few weeks while those in a more stable condition wait a few months.
However, cardiac diseases such as myocardial infarction, cardiac arrhythmia, or congenital heart defects are the leading cause of death in Croatia. Annually about 25,000 people die of these diseases.