When Detroit Muscle Powered a Breakthrough in Heart Surgery
When Detroit Muscle Powered a Breakthrough in Heart Surgery
Mr. Rippingille and two other G. M.
employees monitored the operation of the device, while Dr. Dodrill and a surgical team successfully repaired Mr. Opitek’s mitral heart valve.
The combined efforts of Harper doctors and G. M.
engineers would produce a miraculous machine — a mechanical device that would temporarily replace Mr. Opitek’s heart.
The operation was performed by a team led by Dr. Forest D. Dodrill, who had approached G. M.
about a partnership after reasoning that pumping blood would be much like pumping fuel.
“We have pumped oil, gasoline, water and other fluids one way or another in our business,” Mr. Rippingille said in a 1952 G. M.
publication, “The Fateful Heart,” that was cited by Dr. Stephenson.
Dr. Cooksey introduced Dr. Dodrill to Mr. Wilson, and the two men met to discuss how a mechanical heart might work.
“Dodrill took a big step that at least demonstrated open-heart surgery could be done while circulating blood with a pump,” said Dr. Larry W. Stephenson,
a professor of surgery at Wayne State University who documented the operation at length in a 2002 article for the Journal of Cardiac Surgery.
Mr. Rippingille and two other G. M.
employees monitored the operation of the device, while Dr. Dodrill and a surgical team successfully repaired Mr. Opitek’s mitral heart valve.
The combined efforts of Harper doctors and G. M.
engineers would produce a miraculous machine — a mechanical device that would temporarily replace Mr. Opitek’s heart.
The operation was performed by a team led by Dr. Forest D. Dodrill, who had approached G. M.
about a partnership after reasoning that pumping blood would be much like pumping fuel.
“We have pumped oil, gasoline, water and other fluids one way or another in our business,” Mr. Rippingille said in a 1952 G. M.
publication, “The Fateful Heart,” that was cited by Dr. Stephenson.
Dr. Cooksey introduced Dr. Dodrill to Mr. Wilson, and the two men met to discuss how a mechanical heart might work.
“Dodrill took a big step that at least demonstrated open-heart surgery could be done while circulating blood with a pump,” said Dr. Larry W. Stephenson,
a professor of surgery at Wayne State University who documented the operation at length in a 2002 article for the Journal of Cardiac Surgery.