In 1972, University Hospital in London, Ontario, was shiny, new and the ideal place to launch a cardiac surgery program. The introduction of cyclosporine in the late 70s reinvigorated the program, which, like all others, had suffered from inadequate immuno-suppressants and, in 1981, Dr. McKenzie performed a successful transplant of a human heart and the first successful heart-lung transplant in 1984. For several years, this was the only transplant program in Canada.

He notes that the operation is now so successful that patients are likely to outlive him. He remembers vaguely recognizing a patient in a waiting room and asked about his procedure. Gall bladder surgery. Had he been in before? No. Then it clicked. The man had a heart transplant 15 years ago and completely forgotten.

“His life returned to normal,” says Dr. McKenzie, “and he absorbed this momentous event into his psyche.”

Dr. McKenzie believes that mentoring a young surgeon to full maturity is an important part of the job. He led the cardiac surgery residency training program between 1991-2002. Deriving great pleasure in the leadership many of them have achieved, he has trained 45 cardiac surgery residents and transplant fellows so that “they can do as I did, and stand on the shoulders of those who’ve gone before.”