John W. Kirklin

rdf:langString John W. Kirklin

rdf:langString John W. Kirklin

rdf:langString John W. Kirklin

rdf:langString Open heart surgery

rdf:langString *Mayo Clinic *University of Alabama School of Medicine

rdf:langString John Webster Kirklin

rdf:langString *University of Minnesota *Harvard Medical School

rdf:langString *Refining the heart-lung bypass machine *Surgical teaching *Surgeon Assistant Training Programme *Computerized intensive care unit monitoring *Editor for The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery

rdf:langString American

rdf:langString *Co-author of Cardiac Surgery

rdf:langString Cardiothoracic surgeon

rdf:langString Surgeon

rdf:langString John Webster Kirklin (April 5, 1917 – April 21, 2004) was an American cardiothoracic surgeon, general surgeon, prolific author and medical educator who is best remembered for refining John Gibbon's heart–lung bypass machine via a pump-oxygenator to make feasible under direct vision, routine open-heart surgery and repairs of some congenital heart defects. The success of these operations was combined with his other advances, including teamwork and developments in establishing the correct diagnosis before surgery and progress in computerized intensive care unit monitoring after open heart surgery. After completing his undergraduate education at the University of Minnesota, Kirklin gained admission to Harvard Medical School from where he graduated in 1942. He was a neurosurgeon during the Second World War, but later, after being appointed to the Mayo Clinic in 1950, specialised in the surgical treatment of congenital heart disease. From 1964 he led the surgical departments at the Mayo Clinic and from 1966 until retirement, held the same position at the University of Alabama School of Medicine (UAB). He performed the world's first successful series of open heart operations using the heart-lung machine. The Board of Governors at the Mayo Clinic approved the first eight operations, of which 4 (50%) survived. Kirklin had the idea of training surgeon assistants as a new type of physician's assistant and started the UAB's Surgeon Assistant (SA) Training Programme in 1967. He was also the editor of The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and received a number of honorary degrees from universities around the world. He was president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery in 1978.

rdf:langString *Father Byrl R. Kirklin *Son James Kirklin *Granddaughter Eleanor Ray

rdf:langString John Webster Kirklin