A new mitral valve

Harken, Dwight E.; Matloff, Jack M.; Zuckerman, Walter; Chaux, Aurelio

doi:10.1016/s0022-5223(19)42963-2

Cited by 13 publications

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“…8 In 1968, Harken introduced a new, low-profile, discoid mitral prosthesis consisting of a four-strut titanium cage and a mobile Silastic disc. 13 He also pioneered the implantation of the first pacemakers at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital at Harvard, 14 where experiments were also carried out with counterpulsation, today's intra-aortic balloon pump, which has saved lives. 15 It is widely accepted that the idea originated with the Greek professor S. Moulopoulos when he was working in the USA in 1961, but Harken's original publication dates from the same year.…”

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Dwight Emary Harken, MD, an all-American surgical giant: Pioneer cardiac surgeon, teacher, mentor

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2018

Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings

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Criticism of pioneering is always the tool of men frustrated by their own inability to create.-Dwight E. Harken I cannot deny the fact that it is difficult for me to describe my first teacher in cardiac surgery. It is as if you have come face to face with a sheer granite cliff and are trying to work out how to get to the top. The personality, the achievements, the legend are all daunting. Dwight Harken (b. 1910) (Figure 1) came from the small town of Osceola, Iowa, where his father, a family physician, would visit his patients on horseback. Dwight, like many other promising young physicians, began his specialization at the Bellevue Hospital in New York City. He did postgraduate studies at the famous Royal Brompton Hospital in London, working with the renowned thoracic surgeon Tudor Edwards. 1 When the Normandy invasion took place in 1944, he became a lieutenant-colonel in the medical corps and acquired a good reputation for removing bullets and shrapnel from the chests of 134 wounded soldiers-78 within or in relation to the great vessels and 56 in or in relation to the heart-without losing a single one. 2 Techniques at that time were primitive and, of course, there was no heartlung machine. He would therefore make a hole in the heart or blood vessel, remove the foreign body, and then suture it rapidly with the blood spurting up to the ceiling! The operation required nerves of steel and stamina, qualities that Dwight must have had after being an amateur boxer. As expressed by R. Meade, this was the greatest technical advance in chest surgery during World War II. 3 Further, F. B. Berry called this series "the first consistently successful operations in this area." 4 Returning to the USA after the war, he joined the staff of Harvard under Professor Elliott Cutler, a pioneer who had

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confidence: 99%