Browse Items (230 total)

F. John Lewis lead the first surgical team to perform a successful open heart surgery in a dry field under direct vision using hypothermia. The operation was performed on September 2, 1952 at the University of Minnesota.

In 1955, C. Walton Lillehei began to administer a new drug named Isuprel to treat patients that developed heart block following an open heart surgery.

Alfred Blalock of The Johns Hopkins Hospital was a well known cardiac surgeon who performed the first procedure to treat the congenital heart defect Tetralogy of Fallot in 1944. Following the announcement of the success of the controlled cross…

Controlled cross circulation was a method of open heart surgery devised by C. Walton Lillehei, Herbert Warden, and Morley Cohen in the research laboratories of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota. During the operation, a donor…

While conducting experimental research on blood conduction for open heart surgery in 1953, C. Walton Lillehei collaborated with Sigmamotor, Inc. of Middleport, New York to design a pump sufficient to pump blood through plastic tubing during open…

While conducting experimental research on blood conduction for open heart surgery in 1953, C. Walton Lillehei collaborated with Sigmamotor, Inc. of Middleport, New York to design a pump sufficient to pump blood through plastic tubing during open…

While conducting experimental research on blood conduction for open heart surgery in 1953, C. Walton Lillehei collaborated with Sigmamotor, Inc. of Middleport, New York to design a pump sufficient to pump blood through plastic tubing during open…

While conducting experimental research on blood conduction for open heart surgery in 1953, C. Walton Lillehei collaborated with Sigmamotor, Inc. of Middleport, New York to design a pump sufficient to pump blood through plastic tubing during open…

In 1957, the Minnesota Heart Association awarded a grant to the Department of Surgery in the name of surgical resident William Weirich to continue research on the treatment of heart block and pursue the development of a transistorized…

Denton A. Cooley (1920- ) received his medical training at Johns Hopkins University where he obtained a doctor of medicine degree in 1944. While at Johns Hopkins, Cooley assisted Dr. Alfred Blalock in the first successful insertion of a…

Dr. Russell Brock (1903-1980) was a British heart surgeon and a pioneer in cardiovascular surgery who performed one of the first extracardiac operations to alleviate pulmonary stenosis in 1948.

Morse J Shapiro (1893-1968) received a bachelor of science (1915) and a doctor of medicine (1917) from the University of Minnesota.
Following his service in the army from 1917-1919, Shapiro became a public school physician in Minneapolis. In 1922,…

After the method of controlled cross circulation was made public on April 30, 1954, requests came in from members of the medical community to come to Minnesota to observe the method during an operation. The Department of Surgery regularly received…

Paul Zoll of Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, developed external cardiac pacing.

In 1955, C. Walton Lillehei began to administer a new drug named Isuprel to treat patients that developed heart block following an open heart surgery.

On January 30, 1957, the surgical team of C. Walton Lillehei, William Weirich, and Vincent Gott successfully implanted a myocardial electrode on a patient's heart tissue, which was connected by wire to a Grass Physiological Stimulator, that provided…

The Sigmamotor pump was used during open heart surgery to pump blood through polyvinyl tubing from a patient to a donor or artificial oxygenator while the heart was being operated on.

A form used to track the maintenance of the Sigmamotor pump used to pump blood during open heart surgery.

Controlled cross circulation was a method of open heart surgery devised by C. Walton Lillehei, Herbert Warden, and Morley Cohen in the research laboratories of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota. During the operation, a donor…

Earl Bakken collaborated with C. Walton Lillehei in 1957 to create a battery-operated transistorized pacemaker for use in the treatment of heart block.

Antifoam A, a substance made by the Dow Corning Corporation, was used in the operation of the DeWall Bubble Oxygenator. The substance, when coated along the walls of the debubbling chamber of the oxygenator unit, helped to dissipate bubbles…

C. Walton Lillehei responded to a letter A.F. Crumley, Superintendent of the San Diego County General Hospital, sent to him regarding the use of hypothermia for open heart surgery and the purchase of a hypothermia blanket and respirator. In this…

C. Walton Lillehei wrote to J. Richard R. Bobb, Chief of Staff of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Long Beach, California in response to Bobb's letter of October 14, 1966 in which he inquired about the expense of open heart surgery.

In 1952, engineer Alan Belgard and cardiologist Paul Zoll designed an external defibrillator and pacemaker which was sold commercially by the Electrodyne Company of Norwood, Massachusetts. The unit was comprised of an electrocardiograph to monitor…

In a memorandum sent to all division and department heads on February 3, 1953, Robert B. Howard, Director of Post-Graduate Studies in the Medical School, requested a report "about the various research projects currently being carried out in the…

Dr. James Watt, Director of the National Heart Institute Department of Health, Education and Welfare, wrote to the Department of Surgery to request a summary of the cross circulation method for open heart surgery that would be, "understandable to the…

Following the reports of the first successful controlled cross circulation operation in 1954, surgeons from all over the world visited the University of Minnesota to observe the procedure performed by Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and his surgical…

Controlled cross circulation was a method of open heart surgery devised by C. Walton Lillehei, Herbert Warden, and Morley Cohen in the research laboratories of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota. During the operation, a donor…

Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world's first successful heart transplant in December of 1967. Barnard completed a residency from 1956-1958 under Owen Wangensteen, chief of the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota Hospitals.

Dr. Christaan Barnard of the Department of Surgery at the University of Capetown in South Africa came to the University of Minnesota as a surgical resident in January of 1956. From 1956-1958 he was trained on the pump oxygenator system for open heart…

Dr. Christaan Barnard of the Department of Surgery at the University of Capetown in South Africa came to the University of Minnesota as a surgical resident in January of 1956. From 1956-1958 he was trained on the pump oxygenator system for open heart…

Clarence Dennis was a professor of surgery at the University of Minnesota until 1951 when he accepted the position of the head of the Department of Surgery at the State University of New York Medical Center at New York City. Dennis began work on a…

From 1947-1951 Clarence Dennis, professor of surgery, received funding from the Graduate School, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Public Health Service to support his research in the development of a heart and lung machine for open heart…

From 1947-1951 Clarence Dennis, professor of surgery, received funding from the Graduate School, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Public Health Service to support his research in the development of a heart and lung machine for open heart…

Denton A. Cooley (1920- ) received his medical training at Johns Hopkins University where he obtained a doctor of medicine degree in 1944. While at Johns Hopkins, Cooley assisted Dr. Alfred Blalock in the first successful insertion of a…

Denton A. Cooley (1920- ) received his medical training at Johns Hopkins University where he obtained a doctor of medicine degree in 1944. While at Johns Hopkins, Cooley assisted Dr. Alfred Blalock in the first successful insertion of a…

A blank form that was used to record the details of open heart surgery performed using the DeWall Bubble Oxygenator.

The abbreviations IVC and SVC refer to the inferior and superior venae cavae, two large veins that return deoxygenated blood from…

Following the public announcement of the method of controlled cross circulation for open heart surgery on April 30, 1954, Cosmopolitan magazine wrote a feature article that featured Pamela Schmidt, the cured patient introduced at the press…

Antifoam A, a substance made by the Dow Corning Corporation, was used in the operation of the DeWall Bubble Oxygenator. The substance, when coated along the walls of the debubbling chamber of the oxygenator unit, helped to dissipate bubbles…

F. John Lewis, Richard Varco, Mansur Taufic, and C. Walton Lillehei performed the world's first open heart surgery under direct vision in a dry operative field on September 2, 1952. The surgeons repaired an atrial septal defect on a 5-year-old girl…

In a memorandum sent to all division and department heads on February 3, 1953, Robert B. Howard, Director of Post-Graduate Studies in the Medical School, requested a report "about the various research projects currently being carried out in the…

Following a power outage in Minneapolis on October 31, 1957, the need for a portable battery-operated pacemaker for patients with post-operative heart block became imperative. To treat heart block - a condition in which sutures placed within the…

Following the public announcement of the method of controlled cross circulation for open heart surgery on April 30, 1954, Cosmopolitan magazine wrote a feature article that featured Pamela Schmidt, the cured patient introduced at the press…

George Schimert (1918-2000) was a medical fellow (1956), research assistant (1956-1957), fellow specialist (1957-1958), assistant professor for the Seoul National University of Korea Cooperative Project, and research fellow (1960) in surgery at the…

This correspondence describes the administrative details of providing Medtronic pacemakers to patients at the University Hospitals.

Herbert E. Warden (1920-2002), was a Medical Fellow and Clinical Instructor of Surgery at the University of Minnesota from 1951-1960. Warden, along with Morley Cohen, C. Walton Lillehei, and Richard Varco formed the first surgical team to perform a…

Herbert E. Warden (1920-2002), was a Medical Fellow and Clinical Instructor of Surgery at the University of Minnesota from 1951-1960.

Warden, along with Morley Cohen, C. Walton Lillehei, and Richard Varco formed the first surgical team to…

In a memorandum sent to all division and department heads on February 3, 1953, Robert B. Howard, Director of Post-Graduate Studies in the Medical School, requested a report "about the various research projects currently being carried out in the…

J. Richard R. Bobb, Chief of Staff at Veterans Administration Hospital in Long Beach, California wrote to C. Walton Lillehei regarding the costs associated with open heart surgery.

The battery-operated transistorized pacemaker for the treatment of heart block was developed in the winter of 1957-1958 by Earl Bakken of Medtronic, Inc.

In October of 1944 at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, Clarence Crafoord performed the first successful repair of coarctation of the aorta—a narrowing of the aorta, the major blood vessel that delivers oxygenated blood to the rest of…

From 1947-1951 Clarence Dennis, professor of surgery, received funding from the Graduate School, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Public Health Service to support his research in the development of a heart and lung machine for open heart…

Leonard Engel wrote The Operation, "A minute-by-minute account of a heart operation--and the story of medicine and surgery that led up to it." The book, which profiles the surgical procedures devised by C. Walton Lillehei and others at the University…

This pamphlet was produced by the Minnesota Heart Association (established 1947) to promote awareness of heart disease.

The Minnesota Heart Association was incorporated in 1947. This report includes a description the activities of the organization, including fundraising and outreach efforts, and a list of grants issued for heart research.

The Minnesota Heart Association was incorporated in 1947. The 1951-1952 edition of "The Gopher Heart" was the first published annual report of the organization. The report includes a description of the activities of the organization, including…

Morse J Shapiro (1893-1968) received a bachelor of science (1915) and a doctor of medicine (1917) from the University of Minnesota. Following his service in the army from 1917-1919, Shapiro became a public school physician in Minneapolis.
In 1922,…

Mohamed Nazih Zuhdi (1925- ) was a medical fellow in surgery at the University of Minnesota from 1956-1957. In 1957 he became a member of the faculty of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. He performed the first open heart surgery in…