[Who may place the first donor heart? Conflict surrounding the first heart transplant in the Netherlands].

On Friday 22 June 1984 a patient was waiting in Rotterdam to be moved to Brussels for a heart transplant. The Dutch heart surgery centres tried to mutually agree on the place where the first heart transplant should be performed. When this proved impossible, the decision was made by the cardiac surgeons from Rotterdam and Leiden. In this article we will reconstruct the events that took place at that time, partly on the basis of a recent 'witness seminar'.