Conferences, symposia, pre-operative patient visits... These are words that, for me, rhyme with travel. Not very entertaining on the face of it! My job, however, has enabled me to travel in a way that I probably couldn't have done on my own. Thanks to my work, from 1974-1975 I was invited all over the world. At the time, I was a regular visitor to airports, a world that was at first disconcerting, but one in which I felt more and more at ease as time went by. Flying has become a real pleasure for me, precisely at the moment after take-off when you pass above the clouds. A unique feeling of liberation! A sense of fulfilment that you can only experience in the cabin of a plane. In fact, I always asked for seats close to the window, so as not to miss anything of the spectacle. This paid off particularly well the day my plane passed over Greenland, when suddenly, through a gap in the clouds, I discovered an extraordinary landscape of ice!
Another day, I interrupted my work to ask my neighbour a question: "I think you're Philippe Noiret...". "And you're Professor Cabrol", he replied. We chatted for a long time until we realised that we'd probably played football together when we were much younger, he with the Oratorians and I with the Marists!
I met a lot of people, but mainly young Tahitians whom I saw at home before bringing them to Paris for surgery. I'd arrive at 6 o'clock in the morning and, often, having promised myself I'd go straight to bed, I'd let myself be taken straight to the market, the one with the multicoloured fish... I'd see my former patients there: in almost every village, I'd operated on someone. One Saturday evening, I was told that a young biker had crashed into a coconut tree, rupturing his aorta. It was impossible to send him to Australia or New Zealand; he would have died on the plane. I slept for two hours before embarking on the operation, which went well.
Hanoi was undoubtedly at the top of my list of short trips. Jacques Chirac, then Mayor of Paris, was visiting the region and wanted to see the hospitals in the Vietnamese capital. He was told that I knew them well. So to guide him, I went there for a single day.
My involvement in politics has lasted longer! In fact, I'm still a Paris councillor. I was also a member of the European Parliament. In other words, I've been on the Thalys! These days, I prefer to use the car to go to my house in Brittany or my wife's house in Lozère... these are private trips! I haven't done that for years. I've made two car journeys that had a strong emotional impact: the first with my parents, the second with my wife on our honeymoon. Both were personal, of course, but they did precede or follow congresses... over and over again!
Interview by Karin Filhoulaud
Six dates
1925 Born on 16 September in Chézy-sur-Marne, Aisne.
1968 Christian Cabrol performed the first heart transplant in Europe.
1982 He carried out the first heart and lung transplant in Europe.
1986 He performs the first implantation of an artificial heart in France.
2000 He and his colleagues set up the Pitié-Salpêtrière Group Heart Institute.
2006 He published a new book, "De tout cœur" (published by Odile Jacob).
