A case for re-establishment of cardiac surgery at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, South Africa

Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, popularly known as Bara, was built by the Imperial government in 1940 to cater for British and Allied soldiers from the Eastern Frontier war on land owned by a Cornish immigrant, Mr John Albert Baragwanath.[1] In 1947, it was turned into a 480-bed civilian hospital for the new inhabitants of Soweto, forcibly relocated from Sophiatown.[1] As Soweto grew to become one of the largest townships on the continent, so too did Bara grow to become the third-largest hospital in the world, with 2 800 beds. It also became the largest teaching platform for medical students of the University of the Witwatersrand.