Heart Surgery
oracknows | September 24, 2015Early in the history of this blog, I had a running gag that I'd use every now and then. Basically, it involved humorously extravagant descriptions of how I wanted to hide my face behind a paper bag in sheer embarrassment at the antics of fellow physicians, particularly fellow surgeons. Over time, the gag evolved to my expressing a mock desire to hide my visage behind a metal Doctor Doom-style mask, again, over sheer embarrassment over the idiocy of my colleagues about a scientific issue, again, usually evolution. Sadly, creationist physicians are a very common source of such embarrassment,…
carlyo | August 26, 2013Daniel Hale Williams- Surgeon and Medical Educator
Medical textbooks in the early 1890s said that operating on near the human heart was too dangerous. But on a hot summer's night in Chicago in 1893, surgeon Daniel Hale Williams -- while attempting to treat a life-threatening chest wound to a patient -- plunged courageously into this void, and thus made medical history. In 1891 he founded the first African American-owned (and non-segregated) hospital in America, and the first nursing school for African Americans.
Read more of his fascinating biography here.
Learn more about the USA Science…
gregladen | April 9, 2009I heard an interesting story today from someone involved in heart surgery research, a story about the first battery powered pacemaker to be used on a human. I don't know if any aspect of this is apocryphal or not, but I can tell you that the source is pretty reliable, and parts of this story are widely repeated on the Intertubes, so they must be true.
The original pacemaker was, of course, developed here at the University of Minnesota. In fact, open heard surgery was pioneered here and a lot of other heart related research. This is also where the first (and only) human-grown heart was…