Heart-lung Machines

The heart-lung machine was invented in 1930 by a surgeon names John H. Gibbon, Jr. He had seen a woman die from an operation because the brain was deprived of oxygen a minute too long. He and his wife were spurred by this tragedy to work on a machine that could take over the function of the heart and the lung during surgery.

To substitute the lungs, a pump is used to send blood from the body to the machine. In the machine, blood is enriched with oxygen by blowing oxygen on a thin film of blood on a wire screen in a turning metal cylinder.

In this manner, the heart can be stopped for hours. Later manifestations of Gibbon's heart-lung machine have made heart transplants, implantation of artificial hearts and all types of open heart surgery possible.

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