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> caught up in the surgeon's desire to make a name for himself.

Clinical trials often give people a ray of hope and I would imagine this trial was done without coercion. Remember that insulin, coronary bypass surgery and literally every medical treatment today was once experimental.

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The first heart transplant (1967, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6062759/ ) made newspaper front page headlines and was not smooth sailing: "Although the patient, Mr. Louis Washansky, died after only 18 days, Barnard soon carried out a second transplant, and this patient led an active life for almost 19 months. Remarkably, Barnard’s fifth and sixth patients lived for almost 13 and 24 years, respectively."

That is very interesting..

Usually, candidates considered for heart transplants don't have a great alternative - i.e. healthy enough to survive the surgery but without the surgery these candidates would have deteriorated regardless

Exactly. If there is something new to learn and both sides are somehow beneficial there is no problem.

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