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Ann Thorac Surg 2003;76:S2197-S2198
© 2003 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

Supplement: Gibbon & His Heart-Lung Machine

Retrospective on Dr Gibbon and his heart-lung machine

Joeann Guthrey Taylor Fraser, RN, CCP*

* Address reprint requests to Ms Fraser, 2984 Tusket Ave, North Port, FL, USA 34386.

Presented at the symposium, "Gibbon & His Heart-Lung Machine: 50 Years & Beyond," Philadelphia, PA, May 2, 2003.

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

May 6, 1953 could very well be one of the most significant dates in medical history. On this day 50 years ago, Dr John H. Gibbon, Jr, performed surgery at Philadelphia's Jefferson Hospital on a young woman in what was the world's first successful open heart operation using a mechanical heart-lung device on a human being.

In 1953 this patient was a 17-year-old college student in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, who had a congenital heart defect: a hole the size of a half dollar in the wall between the two upper chambers of the heart. She came in for regular follow-up for years and I had the chance to meet her during those visits as a nurse/perfusionist here at Jefferson. In 1978, about 25 years after her surgery, I lost track of her but up until that time she was living a healthy life working as a secretary in Philadelphia. At about this time I remember an article in the Philadelphia Bulletin, which was the evening paper at that time, in which she was quoted as saying she always had a youthful hunch or teenager's intuition that her surgery would be a success. She felt it would go her way with Dr Gibbon, his machine, and prayers.

In 1956–1957 I attended Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. From there I came to Jefferson Medical College School of Nursing from 1957–1960. While studying I met Sylvia Shopp, the head nurse of the cardiac operating room and I spent some time working in the dog laboratory where I met Dr Gibbon. Doctor Gibbon said to me one day, "What's a nice young girl from Friends Central [he had attended our sister school Penn Charter] doing cleaning out cages? You should study hard instead." In fact he often called me, "Hey, . . . [Full Text of this Article]






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