Medical Advances of the 50s By: Morgan Carwile

First Heart-Lung Machine Built by the physician John Heysham Gibbon who also preformed the first open heart surgery The death of a young patient in 1931 caused Gibbon to develop a device for bypassing the heart and lungs. The heart-lung machine allowed for more effective heart surgery He worked on research and invention by himself

First Heart-Lung Machine Cont. In 1935 Gibbon used a proto-type machine to keep a cat alive for 26 minutes He started a new experiment in the 1950’s with dogs using and IBM-built machine The first heart-lung machine was used on a human in 1953

How a Heart-Lung Machine Works

Double Helix (DNA) First described by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953 DNA stands for deoxyribo-nucleic-acid They first introduced the idea in a news paper X-rays were used to look at DNA DNA is what passes genes on from generation to generation and is what we are made of click here!

First Kidney Transplant The identical Herrick twin were the first The one twin Ronald was healthy and the other twin Richard was in the hospital dying of kidney disease they were 23 The doctors didn’t know how to trick the immune system yet so they had to be identical twins or else the recipients immune system would reject the donated organ It was preformed by Dr. Joseph Murray

First Kidney Transplant Continued Richard, the sick twin, tried to call off the surgery the night before but Ronald, the healthy twin said they were going to do it and that was that After their successful operation the twins sang together (picture)

Polio Vaccine Discovered by Dr. Jonas Salk He developed a process using the chemical formalin to inactivate the whole virus In 1954 clinical trials began and cases of polio fell greatly in those vaccinated In 1955 the government granted permission for the vaccine to be used on children

Polio Vaccine Continued The vaccine actually induced 260 cases of poliomyelitis, including 10 deaths The problem was traced to incomplete inactivation to all the polio particles The problem was soon corrected In 1957, in an effort to improve upon the killed Salk vaccine, Albert Bruce Sabin began testing a live, oral form of vaccine in which the infectious part of the virus was inactivated (attenuated). This vaccine became available for use in 1963

Works Cited "Transplant Pioneers Recall Medical Milestone : NPR." NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR. Web. 26 Feb /profiles.nlm.nih.gov/SC/Views/Exhibit/narrative/doublehelix.html "DNA - The Double Helix." Nobelprize.org. Web. 26 Feb