OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Renowned heart surgeon Dr. Nazih Zuhdi, who performed Oklahoma’s first heart bypass operation and installed the first pacemaker in the state, has died at age 91.
Friends and family said Zuhdi never stopped innovating during his six-decade career in Oklahoma City, The Oklahoman (https://bit.ly/2k89BCS ) reported. The Hahn-Cook/Street & Draper Funeral Directors home said a funeral for Zuhdi was held Wednesday, a day after he died.
“He was fearless, and he never doubted his skill,” said Stanley Hupfeld, former Integris Health CEO who knew Zuhdi for several years. “To do that kind of groundbreaking work … that takes courage.”
Zuhdi was born in Lebanon on May 19, 1925. He earned his medical degree from the American University of Beirut in 1950, prior to making his way to the United States. He came to Oklahoma to practice medicine in 1957.
While in Oklahoma, he implanted a human patient with the aortic valve from a pig. He also performed the state’s first human-to-human heart transplant.
Zuhdi also worked to research and improve the heart-lung machine used during heart surgery to temporarily take over the functions of the heart and lungs. Open heart surgery prior to the heart-lung machine wasn’t possible, said Dr. Jim Long, director of the Integris Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute in Oklahoma City.
“A handful of pioneers that had the courage to break through the impossible, and he was a part of helping adapt heart-lung bypass technology - the heart-lung machine - and its use that revolutionized the field of heart surgery,” Long said.
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Information from: The Oklahoman, https://www.newsok.com
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