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Barnad's operation was initially successful. Washkansky not only survived the surgery, but when he awoke from the surgery he stated, "I am the new Frankenstein." His statement was richly ironic because Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein was banned in South Africa for immorality. <ref>Lederer, <i>Religious Bodies</i>, p. 201.</ref> He even had the opportunity to spend time with his wife during the next 17 days. Unfortunately, at that point he contracted pneumonia and died. While Groote Schuur had an excellent cardiac unit, it did not have sufficient expertise in immune suppression. To avoid organ rejection, Washkansky was administered immune suppression drugs, but they ended weakening his immune system too much and made him susceptible to infection. Board members of the United States Institute of Medicine argued that Barnard "lacked a proper team of immunologists" to assist in the transplant and that oversight doomed his patient.<ref>Berkowitz, Edward, <i>To Improve Human Health: A History of the Institute of Medicine</i>, https://www.nap.edu/read/6382, (National Academy Press, 1998), 16.</ref>

Despite Washansky's death, Barnard's operation was a boon for both his reputation and South Africa. Barnard and Washkansky briefly became "pop stars with worldwide media coverage."<ref>Hamilton, <i>A History of Organ Transplantation</i>, 348.</ref> South Africa was becoming increasingly toxic on the world stage because of its oppressive enforcement of apartheid. The South African government saw it as an opportunity to extoll the virtues of their regime.