Researched
Heart-lung machine
John Gibbon's machine took over the work of heart and lungs in 1953, letting surgeons stop the heart and repair it, and opening open-heart surgery.
Open in the interactive tree →Gibbon closed a hole in the heart of an 18-year-old woman on 6 May 1953 while his machine kept her blood circulating. Bypass became routine in the late 1950s and made valve repair, coronary bypass grafting and heart transplants possible.
Prerequisites
Unlocks
- Organ transplantation1954Heart and lung transplants need bypass to stop the organ while it is replaced
- Cardiac pacemaker1958