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His name was Charles, but I don't want
you to feel sorry for him, because Charles didn't want the attention
that comes with helping to create a lifesaving invention. Charles
had earned enough praise for his work in another field, totally
unrelated to his work as a medical researcher and inventor.
Besides, since he was already known as
the greatest in his field, he would probably not have been taken
seriously as a medical researcher. Does anyone remember that Babe
Ruth the actor once starred in a movie? Or that Mark Twain the
inventor once earned more money from one of his inventions than from
his writings that year?
Any unnecessary attention might have
hindered Charles' work. His motivation came from the fact that his
sister-in-law had a serious illness and there wasn't any kind of
medical device available that could save her life.
Charles approached Dr. Alexis Carrel of
the Rockefeller Institute about working together. An odd pairing,
the two hit it off immediately. Carrel, who had won a Nobel Prize
for his work on organ transplants, was known as "the father of
vascular surgery" and was somewhat quirky, while Charles was the
amateur medical researcher with nationwide name recognition who
chose to work in anonymity.
Dr. Carrel was from France, a country
which gave Charles a hero's welcome. He later won a Pulitzer Prize
in 1939 for a book that he co-wrote with Charles called "The Culture
of Organs." Charles would later win a Pulitzer Prize of his own for
a book in a totally different field.
The two of them went about trying to
create a way to keep the heart and other organs alive outside of the
body during surgery. The result was a perfusion pump, which
consisted of an organ chamber, an equalization chamber and a
pressure chamber, all contained in a glass container. It was
designed to circulate blood through the body during surgery.
Charles created a system of floating
valves, using airplane glue to seal the device shut. It had to be a
closed system in order to keep things sterile. Charles had even
suggested to Carrel that he bypass the heart during cardiac surgery,
but Carrel refused. It took another 20 years before another surgeon
accomplished open heart surgery in 1954.
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When World War II began, both men
walked away from their research. Carrel died during the war --
ironically, of heart failure -- while Charles was stationed in the
Pacific.
Success and inventing seemed to run in
Charles' family. His father was elected to U.S. Congress five times
and later made a run for the Senate, which he lost. His maternal
grandfather was the dentist who invented the porcelain crown.
The family of Charles' wife, Anne, was
just as successful as Charles' family. Anne's father was a partner
of J.P. Morgan as well as an ambassador to Mexico and later a U.S.
senator. In fact, it was Anne's anesthesiologist who led him to Dr.
Carrel. Both Charles and Anne received numerous awards during their
life together, yet they were haunted by the death of their infant
son early in their marriage.
By now, you've probably figured out who
Charles is. If not, here's a recap of the clues:
--France gave Charles a hero's welcome.
--Charles had won a Pulitzer Prize for
his book.
--Charles used airplane glue to seal
the system of floating valves shut.
--Charles and Anne were haunted by the
death of their infant son.
The book was "The Spirit of St. Louis,"
which Charles Lindbergh wrote in 1953.
Since Charles's second career would
probably have been overshadowed by his first -- as was the case with
actor Babe Ruth and inventor Mark Twain -- he probably would not
have been taken seriously as a medical researcher and inventor.
The invention came to be known as the
Carrel-Lindbergh perfusion pump. Lindbergh's contribution was the
perfusion system and the centrifuge which he made to separate blood
plasma without damaging it. Charles didn't really create the first
artificial heart, as has been reported, but rather a way to keep
organs alive outside the body during surgery.
[Paul
Niemann]
Invention Mysteries is written each
week by Paul Niemann. He can be reached at
niemann7@aol.com.
Copyright
Paul Niemann
Last week's column in LDN:
"The year
in review looks back at the 5 hottest inventions of '03"
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