1950's Medicine and Health | Heart-Lung Machine

Illustration

By: John H. Gibbons Jr.

Date: March 26, 1955

Source: Gibbons, John H., Jr. "Heart-Lung Machine." Bettmann/ CORBIS. Image no. U1279080INP. Available online at http://www.corbis.com (accessed February 20, 2003).

About the Author: John H. Gibbons Jr. (1903–1973) invented the heart-lung machine in 1952 while a surgeon at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He first used the machine on May 6, 1953, while closing a hole in a girl's heart. He deposited his plans for the machine in the archives of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Introduction

In 1956, heart disease was the leading killer of Americans. It killed over a third more men than women and accounted for double the deaths from cancer, the second leading killer of Americans.

Medicine had made little progress against heart...