Science & invention
Forest Dewey Dodrill
1902–1997 · surgeon
Harper Hospital surgeon who in 1952 performed the first successful open-heart operation using a mechanical heart pump, built with General Motors engineers.
- Born
Webster Springs, West Virginia- Died
Baltimore, Maryland
aged 95- Also known as
- F. Dewey Dodrill
- Detroit years
- 1930s–1950s
- Field
- Science & invention
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Dodrill grew up in West Virginia, graduated from West Virginia University in 1925 and from Harvard Medical School in 1930, and then came to Detroit as an intern and resident at Harper Hospital, where he became a staff surgeon. He also trained in thoracic surgery at the University of Michigan in the early 1940s. At Harper he set out to build a machine that could take over the work of the heart during an operation, and he developed it with researchers at General Motors, applying Detroit's engineering know-how to medicine. On July 3, 1952, using the Dodrill-GMR mechanical heart to bypass the left side of the heart, he operated on the mitral valve of 41-year-old Henry Opitek, the first successful open-heart surgery with a mechanical pump. The case made Detroit a pioneer of heart surgery, and Dodrill taught at Wayne State University's medical school.
Highlights
- First successful open-heart surgery using a mechanical heart pump, July 3, 1952
- Co-developed the Dodrill-GMR mechanical heart with General Motors researchers
- Staff surgeon at Harper Hospital, Detroit
- Faculty member of Wayne State University School of Medicine
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1930s–1950s
Harper University Hospital
The Detroit hospital where Dodrill trained and practiced, and where he performed the first open-heart operation with the Dodrill-GMR pump in 1952; today part of the Detroit Medical Center.