Adrian Kantrowitz (October 4, 1918 – November 14, 2008) was an American cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first pediatric heart transplant at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn on December 6, 1967. It was only the second time that a human heart had been transplanted into another human being, taking place just three days after Christiaan Barnard's seminal attempt in South Africa made headlines around the world and ushered in a new era i...
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Adrian Kantrowitz (October 4, 1918 – November 14, 2008) was an American cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first pediatric heart transplant at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn on December 6, 1967. It was only the second time that a human heart had been transplanted into another human being, taking place just three days after Christiaan Barnard's seminal attempt in South Africa made headlines around the world and ushered in a new era in clinical organ transplantation. Kantrowitz also invented the intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP), a left ventricular assist device (L-VAD), and an early version of the implantable pacemaker.
Kantrowitz was born in New York City on October 4, 1918. His mother was a costume designer and his father ran a clinic in the Bronx. He told his mother as a three-year old that he wanted to be a doctor, and as a child built an electrocardiograph from old radio parts together with his brother.
He graduated from New York University in 1940, having majored in...
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