Favaloro, Rene Geronimo

▪ 2001

      Argentine heart surgeon (b. July 14, 1923, La Plata, Arg.—d. July 29, 2000, Buenos Aires, Arg.), performed the first documented coronary bypass operation and was the first surgeon to perform successful heart-transplant surgery in Argentina. Favaloro earned a degree in medicine from the National University of La Plata in 1948; he worked as a doctor in the province of La Pampa before moving to the U.S. in 1962 to study thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at the Cleveland (Ohio) Clinic. In 1967, while working at the Cleveland Clinic, Favaloro successfully performed bypass surgery on a 51-year-old woman; the procedure involved hooking the patient to an artificial heart-lung machine, removing a saphenous vein from her leg, and using the vein to form a bypass around blockages in her heart. In 1972 Favaloro returned to Argentina, where he specialized in heart transplant surgery and later established a medical institute—the Favaloro Foundation—in Buenos Aires to promote cardiological research. After Favaloro's death, a suicide, Argentine Pres. Fernando de la Rúa declared a national day of mourning.

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