Monday, June 29, 2015

University of Minnesota Medical Complex


Because I tend to prefer small educational environments, I am surprised at how much I loved going to the University of Minnesota.  The opportunities and energy I found on the campus appealed to me and made me happy. This photo is a long-range shot of the medical complex as seen from across the Mississippi River.  If you max the photo you can see the "Health" sign in the middle of the prominent red building.

It was on this campus that Dr. C. Walton Lillehei taught and practiced. Dr Lillehei pioneered a direct, safe approach to open heart operations in the 1950s, he was known as the “father of open heart surgery.” Indeed, hardly any other cardiac surgeon has introduced a greater number of innovative techniques and concepts.

Another leading heart surgeon at the U was Dr. Richard Varco. On Sept. 2, 1952, Dr. Varco and colleagues at the University of Minnesota performed the first successful operation on a beating human heart, saving a 5-year-old girl who had been born with a heart murmur.
Until then, surgeons had found it impossible to perform open cardiac procedures because the heart pulsated with blood. Dr. Varco's team, led by Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Dr. F. John Lewis, used a risky technique that had worked on animals: cutting off the flow of blood to the heart and lowering the patient's body temperature, stretching the amount of time she could survive without oxygenated blood.

1900 Antoine de Saint-Exupery

14 comments:

  1. A really great building with lots of accomplishments behind it.

    Mersad
    Mersad Donko Photography

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  2. It is situated very nice up there, I like the waves of the building.

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  3. what a beautiful building. Imagine the brain power needed to pioneer such techniques. One of the reasons I love going back to school is to see, first hand, how amazing learning is. It is so empowering in myself an in the young people around me.

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  4. What would we do without such brilliant minds?

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  5. We can all be happy that such smart and dedicated people have made such innovations in medicine. I hope there are more working away right now.
    Kate, the answer to your question is Yes, by all means!

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  6. A fitting spot for this important building, up there above the trees.

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  7. pretty awesome heart history that place has.

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  8. I love your photo and the view of those massive buildings nestled in trees. I think all the trees on the main campus humanize the place so it is less formidable.

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  9. A good vantage point, up on the heights.

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  10. Interesting. I had no idea heart surgery made so many innovations right there in Minnesota! That's something to be proud of.

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  11. It must be a pretty great place to attract people with so much mental horsepower. It's certainly an attractive building.

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  12. They must have nice views.

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  13. Medicine has come a long way, baby!

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  14. Quite historic for a modern building!

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