- Shumway, Norman Edward
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▪ 2007American surgeon (b. Feb. 9, 1923, Kalamazoo, Mich.—d. Feb. 10, 2006, Palo Alto, Calif.), was a pioneer in cardiac transplantation who, on Jan. 6, 1968, at the Stanford University Medical Center, performed the first successful human heart transplant in the U.S. Shumway obtained an M.D. degree (1949) from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., and a Ph.D. in surgery (1956) from the University of Minnesota, where he studied under Owen Harding Wangensteen and Clarence Walton Lillehei, both distinguished innovators in surgery. In 1958 Shumway joined the faculty of the Stanford University School of Medicine. As a member of Stanford's cardiovascular research surgery program, Shumway began conducting heart transplants on dogs. About one month after South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the world's first human heart transplant, Shumway performed the operation on a 54-year-old man whose heart had been damaged by a viral infection. Although the surgery was a success, the patient died 14 days later. The low long-term survival rates—most patients died soon after surgery because of organ rejection or infection—led many doctors to abandon the procedure by the early 1970s. Shumway, however, continued to improve the operation and advanced a drug that prevented organ rejection. Largely through his efforts, in the 1980s heart transplantation became a viable operation. In 1981 Shumway was part of a team that performed the first successful heart-lung transplant. His other major achievements included such open-heart procedures as the transplantation of valves. In 1974 Shumway helped found the department of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford, and he served as its first chairman until he retired in 1993.
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Universalium. 2010.