Wilfred Gordon Bigelow

Wilfred Gordon Bigelow (1913 to 2005), known as Bill, was a Canadian heart surgeon born in Brandon, Manitoba. He took his medical degree at the University of Toronto in 1938, served as a captain in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps performing battle surgery in the Second World War, and joined the surgical staff of Toronto General Hospital in 1947 and the university department of surgery in 1948. In the 1950s he developed the use of hypothermia in open heart surgery, cooling a patient before an operation to reduce oxygen demand and make heart operations safer, and he is also known for his role in developing the artificial pacemaker. He wrote Cold Hearts and Mysterious Heparin, became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1981 and entered the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 1997.