Dr. C. Walton Lillihei in the operating room.1952
Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Dr. F. John Lewis used hypothermia to temporarily slow the heartbeat of a five-year-old girl before performing a surgical repair to a hole in her heart, demonstrating the possibility of open-heart surgery. Because hypothermia limits the amount of time for surgery, this method failed to gain widespread popularity.
[Photo courtesy of Lillehei Heart Institute, Department of Medicine, Medical
School, Academic Health Center, University of Minnesota]