Stealing with his eyes

Today I learned about Hamilton Naki, unfortunately, via his obituary in New York times. It describes him as follows:

Hamilton Naki, a laborer who became a self-taught surgeon of such skill that Dr. Christiaan N. Barnard chose him to assist in the world's first human heart transplant in 1967, but whose contribution was kept secret for three decades because he was a black man in apartheid-era South Africa, died on May 29 at his home in Langa, near Cape Town.

He started as a gardener at the hospital and learned his art by observing transplant procedures done on animals; as he put it, “I stole with my eyes”.



BBC Online - Article on the life of Hamilton Naki (May 2003)
Dispatch Online - Interview with Hamilton Naki (Aug. 2002)
The Guardian (UK) - On the life and achievements of Hamilton Naki (Apr. 2003)
Hamilton Naki Wikipedia page