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Blood Banks 1930s-1940s
Charles Drew showed that emergency blood transfusions could be done with plasma if whole blood was not available. Thanks to his work, donated blood was stored in blood banks, and his work helped save millions of lives off the battlefield. -
Artificial Pacemaker 1958
An electrical engineer, Earl Baaken, developed an external pacemaker to fix irregular heartbeats. The first pacemakers had a fixed rate of 70-75 pulses per minute. -
Heart Valve Replacement 1961
The first successful artificial heart valve was inserted into a patient's heart by surgeons Albert Starr and M. L. Edwards in Oregon. The valve was a rubberlike ball inside a stainless steel cage. -
First Heart Transplant 1967
Christiaan Barnard, a South African surgeon, performed the first transplant of a human heart. Louis Washkansky, the man who received the heart, lived for only 18 days after the transplant. Nonetheless, Barnard's work paved the way for future successes in transplanting hearts and other organs. -
Angioplasty 1977
The first coronary balloon angioplasty was performed by Andreas Gruentzig and a team of surgeons in San Francisco. A balloon is inserted into the coronary artery and inflated, thus opening the artery. In 2001, more than two million angioplasties were performed worldwide. -
Replacement Heart 2001
The first replacement heart was implanted by a team of a surgeons in Louisville, Kentucky. Unlike the first artificial heart, the Jarvik-7, the replacement heart has its own internal batteries. The patient does not have to be "plugged in" to an external power source. The first patient to receive the replacement heart lived for more than 500 days. -
Human Genome Project
This project has the potential to help with so much in medicine, particularly helping address issues associated with genes and disorders caused by genes. https://www.genome.gov/10001772/ -
Stem Cell Research 2006
Stem cells have a large potential for curing diseases and repairing damaged tissue.
