Pres. Nelson honored for pioneering open heart surgery


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SALT LAKE CITY — President Russell M. Nelson was honored Thursday for being a pioneer in the development of open heart surgery.

"He did the first open heart surgery in the state of Utah. That might not sound like a big deal, but at the time there were only two other states in the country that were doing open heart surgery, and back in the '50s that was a scary proposition," said Dr. Craig Selzman, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Utah. "We take it for granted now."

The president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints vividly remembers performing his first open heart operation.

"First was in Pennsylvania, the second was in Minnesota and Utah was the third. That was November of 1955, exactly 60 years ago," he said.

Photo: Unknown, archived image
Photo: Unknown, archived image

While it has been more than 30 years since he left his practice at the University of Utah when he was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, President Nelson was able to recount his experiences developing a heart-lung machine, which surgeons say has made open heart surgery almost routine today.

"We can't do what we do today without what he did. And it is not just what he did in the operating room, he was also a consummate educator, so he trained a litany of folks who are now practicing cardiothoracic surgery all across the country," said Selzman.


We can't do what we do today without what he did.

–Dr. Craig Selzman


"They have been very generous, and I appreciate it," President Nelson said. "There are so many people to commemorate this, and we don't take time to look back very often, so it is kind of nice to look through the rearview mirror occasionally. But not very much; it is better to look forward."

Thanks to President Nelson's contributions in those early years, his peers say advances in heart surgery will continue into the future.

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