1952

Following Wilfred Bigelow’s (Toronto) report of ice water anesthesia on dogs to lower core temperatures, in Minneapolis, F. John Lewis, assisted by Lillehei and Varco, performs first successful open-heart operation to repair ASD (atrial septal defect) in a five-year-old girl, relying on hypothermia, which lowered the core temp to 82 F., to create the five-and-half minutes needed to make the repair (Miller, 79-82; Jeffrey, loc 202-203).