barnard performed the first successful human heart valve operation.
who performed the first successful human heart valve operation?
barnard
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richard rowland lower (august 15, 1929 – may 17, 2008) was an american pioneer of cardiac surgery, particularly in the field of heart transplantation. lower was born in detroit, attended amherst college, and received his medical degree from cornell university in 1955. lower and norman shumway developed many of the techniques required to conduct successful heart transplantation, including the use of hypothermia and the orthotopic technique, which became the standard technique for cardiac transplantation. lower and shumway conducted their research (using dogs, initially) at stanford. lower left stanford to head the cardiac program at the medical college of virginia, and competed with shumway, adrian kantrowitz, and christiaan barnard to conduct the first successful human heart transplant. while the americans (lower, shumway, and kantrowitz) made preparations to conduct the first successful transplant, they were delayed due to disagreements over the differences between cardiac death versus brain death. while a solution was being found to those questions, barnard (who used shumway and lower's research) conducted the first successful (i.e. not resulting in immediate death) human transplantation in south africa on december 3, 1967. adrian kantrowitz subsequently also conducted a transplant in new york city on december 6, 1967. shumway performed his first human transplantation on january 6, 1968. lower performed his first successful human transplantation in may of that same year.
richard lower (surgeon)