50 years ago, University of Minnesota doctors did world's first open heart surgery
September 2, 2002 - MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Dr. Chip Bolman about the fifty-year anniversary of first open heart surgery. The world's first successful open-heart surgery was performed at the University of Minnesota. A team led by Doctor F. John Lewis operated on a five-year-old girl who was born with a hole in her heart. The girl survived and grew up to have two kids of her own. Since then, advances in medicine and medical technology have revolutionized the treatment available to people with heart trouble.