mortality of a heart attack, then 35 percent, was most likely due to a strict regimen of bed rest. Patients remained completely recumbent for six or more weeks. A major complication of bed rest was pulmonary embolism, which accounted for a significant part of the mortality. Although Lown encountered enormous opposition and hostility among doctors to the so-called "chair treatment," in 81 patients so treated, mortality was reduced by two thirds. Once the work was published, the chair treatment was rapidly adopted and hospitalizations were reduced to several days. Untold lives were saved by getting patients out of bed. Until the 1950s, ventricular fibrillation of the heart could be treated with drug therapy alone. In 1956 American cardiologist Paul Zoll described resuscitations during open-heart surgery and, later after sudden cardiac death, by means of an alternating current (AC) electric shock, derived from a wall socket. AC current was untested as to its safety and efficacy and could cause death. In 1959, Lown demonstrated that AC was injurious to the heart and could be lethal. These investigations were conducted in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. The work was supported by Professor Frederick Stare, chairman of the Department of Nutrition. To find a safer method of cardiac resuscitation, Lown enlisted the help of Baruch Berkowitz, an electrical engineer employed by American Optical Company (AO). In their experimental work, Lown focused on two objectives: safety and efficacy. Alternating current caused burns in skeletal and heart muscle and induced atrial as well as ventricular fibrillation in a large majority of the animal experiments. During a year of intense experimentation, in 1961 Lown and coworkers proved that a specific direct current (DC) waveform consistently reversed ventricular fibrillation, restoring a normal heart beat without injuring heart or skeletal muscle. This became widely known as the "Lown waveform." It facilitated the worldwide acceptance of the defibrillator and cardioverter and improved survival of patients with coronary heart disease. The DC defibrillator provided a new approach for resuscitating patients and paved the way for new possibilities in cardiac surgery. The Lown clinical group were the first to use the defibrillator and cardioverter at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. Donald B. Effler was the first cardiac surgeon to use the DC defibrillator in 1962 at the Cleveland Clinic. According to Effler, this advance made possible modern cardiac surgery. Indeed, in 1967, Rene Favoloro performed what