Karen

Karen (born 11 June 1992) is a Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), who on 27 August 1994 at San Diego Zoo was the first orangutan to have open heart surgery and in 2021 was among the first non-humans to receive a vaccine for COVID-19. Concerns for the endangered species of Sumatran orangutan at a time when routine open heart surgery was being performed in human babies, combined with a collaboration between San Diego Zoo and the UC San Diego Health, led to the planning of repairing the large hole in the heart in two-year-old Karen. The operation and after-care required the co-operation of more than 100 volunteers and the resulting procedure was successful and widely publicised. Karen became a favorite with zoo visitors, surviving more than 25 years. Karen is the subject of a book by Georgeanne Irvine titled Karen’s Heart: The True Story of a Brave Baby Orangutan, published by Blue Sneaker Press in 2018. Background Wild Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered. In the 1970s, UC San Diego Health (UCSD) pathologist Kurt Benirschke, persuaded zoo trustees to establish a research department, at the zoo's Center for the Reproduction of Endangered Species, which he subsequently led, providing the collaboration between the University and the zoo.