History of Cardiac Surgery

Between 1996 and 2004, cardio-thoracic surgeon Dr. William S. Stoney conducted 42 videotaped interviews with many notable heart surgeons, including William Longmire, Judson Randolph, and Denton A. Cooley. Dr. Stoney, a Vanderbilt faculty member, published transcriptions of these interviews in his 2008 book, "Pioneers in Cardiac Surgery," published by Vanderbilt University Press. Topics covered in the interviews include Vivien Thomas, Alfred Blalock, and the "blue baby operation;" the first heart-lung machine; the first artificial heart valve; and the first coronary bypass operation. Thanks to Dr. Stoney, all 42 videos plus a compilation with excerpts from three interviews are now available below.