The decades following World War II produced Phenomenal advances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, but none were more spectacular than the development of cardiac surgery. Indeed, the years between 1950 and 1990 have been called the golden age of cardiology. Canadians were in the forefront, led by Dr. Wilfred Gordon "Bill" Bigelow (1592C.1653), an innovative surgeon-scientist at Toronto General Hospital.

His pivotal role in hypothermia research and in developing the cardiac pacemaker were recognized in February of this year when he was named to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

"I was surprised," Bigelow said, adding he hadn't expected to be named since awardees can be selected from the entire sweep of Canadian medical history.

It was through an idea that came to him in his sleep that Dr. Bigelow made medical history, by chilling patients during heart surgery - a move every other doctor thought would kill them.

He had developed an interest in hypothermia as a resident surgeon after having to amputate the frost-bitten fingers of a young man. During the time he served with the Canadian Army in World War H, he again thought of hypothermia as a way to save limbs in which the main artery had been severed.

"I was interested in cooling limbs to see if you could protect them," he said. "One day I woke up and thought why not cool the whole body."

Plunging the body into hypothennia delays deterioration of tissue when a patient's circulation has been stopped, which allowed surgeons in the 1950s to perform the first heart operations.

It was a landmark discovery that left the profession speechless when Bigelow presented his findings before the American Surgical Association in Colorado in 1950.

"When we presented the paper there was no discussion," said Bigelow, 83, retired head of thenToronto General Hospital's division of cardiac surgery.

"It was one of the very few basic medical discoveries where no one stood up to say they'd done something similar."

After 5 years of research on the effects of hypothermia on body and heart metabolism, the first open heart operation in humans was performed in 1953. It was soon widely used throughout the world and is still used today in modified forms.

Another crucial observation arose from these studies. One morning in 1949, during an experiment on hypothermia, the heart stopped and did not respond to cardiac massage. "Out of interest and desperation," Bigelow gave it a poke with a metal prod to which the heart responded with an effective contraction. It was then found that an electrical impulse had the same effect. Thus was bom the concept of an electrical pacemaker, an invention credited to Dr. Bigelow.

Considered the father of cardiovascular surgery in Canada, Dr. Bigelow has received many awards for his contribution to medicine, including the Order of Canada in 1981 and now his induction into the Medical Hall of Fame.

Newspaper clippings submitted by Reid Bigelow, Winnipeg MB and Dorothy Hoffman, St. Catharines ON. Thanks to Dr. Bill Bigelow for supplying the photograph and further information.
This Forge article originally recreated by Don Bigelow.

Related Forge articles. Vol. 25, No. 2 (April 1996).