In 1953 a Jeffersonian launched the modern era of high-technology medicine
by performing the first successful open-heart operation in the world at
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Using the invention pictured here,
he repaired an interatrial septal defect in the heart of the 18 year-old
patient. While the operation lasted only 26 minutes, it was the first
time in the history of surgery that a patient's heart and lung functions
were maintained entirely by a machine.
Who was this man?
John H. Gibbon
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John H. Gibbon and the first heart-lung machine.
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