Adrian Kantrowitz

Adrian Kantrowitz (1918 to 2008) was an American cardiac surgeon from New York City whose team at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn carried out the world's second human heart transplant attempt on 6 December 1967, a procedure he considered a failure because the infant lived only six hours. He graduated from New York University in 1940, took his medical degree in 1943, served as an Army battalion surgeon, and then moved into cardiac surgery. He developed a heart-lung machine used in open heart surgery in 1958, an early implantable pacemaker first implanted in 1961, and the intra-aortic balloon pump and a left ventricular assist device. He performed partial mechanical heart implants in 1966 and in 1981 became a founding member of the World Cultural Council.