Historical perspective of The American Association for Thoracic Surgery: John W. Kirklin, MD (1917–2004)

Abstract

pioneer himself, introduced him and commented, "Dr Kirklin is widely regarded as the dean of American surgery today." In 1998 William Roberts, MD, 2 editor of the American Journal of Cardiology, stated, "John Kirklin is the greatest scientific cardiac surgeon of the century and his contributions will continue to be influential many decades after he is gone." In his book about C. Walton Lillehei, King of Hearts, Wayne Miller 3 refers to Dr Kirklin in the 1970s as "arguably the best practicing open heart surgeon anywhere. He was one of cardiac surgery's most accomplished researchers, a scientist whose mind was sometimes compared, flatteringly, to a computer." Formative YearsJohn Kirklin was born on August 5, 1917, in Muncie, Indiana. When he was 10 years old his family moved to Rochester, Minnesota, because his father, Dr Byrl R. Kirklin, was recruited to the Mayo Clinic as their first director of radiology. His father eventually became professor of radiology there and served as president of the American Roentgen Ray Society in 1937.John Kirklin attended the University of Minnesota and was the student manager of the Golden Gophers varsity football team all four of his undergraduate years. He graduated in 1938 first in a large class, summa cum laude. 1 He attended medical school at Harvard University, graduated first in his class of 150, and was awarded the degree of MD, magna cum laude. 1 Dr Elliott Cutler, professor and chairman of the department of surgery at the time, wrote, "This is the brightest medical student I have ever seen." 1 Dr Kirklin did an internship at the

Translating Clinical Research to the Bedside: The Minnesota Model

“…Dr. John W. Kirklin and his laboratory conducted intense research at the Mayo Clinic to improve the pump oxygenator prototyped earlier by Dr. Gibbon. This led to the development of the "MayoGibbon" pump oxygenator that was utilized in successful intracardiac repair in eight patients [5,7,12,16,17,21]. Development of a reliable pump oxygenator enabled Dr. Kirklin and others to conduct unhurried surgical correction of the cardiac defects with great success.…”