1913 - 2005 Biography
Wilfred Gordon ("Bill") Bigelow was born in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada on June 18, 1913. He earned his MD from the University of Toronto in 1935 and, as a resident in surgery at the Toronto General Hospital, developed an interest in hypothermia after amputating the frost-bitten fingers of a young man. Concerned over the lack of research in the area of hypothermia, Bigelow began studies on the effects on metabolism by local hypothermia in extremities. His initial studies showed that total cooling brought about a reduction in metabolism, requiring less oxygen. Those studies, however, were interrupted in 1941 by World War II, whereupon he enlisted in the Canadian Army serving as a front line surgeon in northwest Europe. Upon his return to civilian practice in 1945, Bigelow became a research fellow at Johns Hopkins University and Hospital. While there, he observed surgical procedures demonstrating the difficulty surgeons had in performing cardiac procedures under direct vision because the heart continued to beat. Using his hypothermia studies as a basis, Bigelow hypothesized that cooling the body would reduce oxygen requirements, interrupt the circulation and allow surgeons the option of opening the heart to operate in a bloodless field.
After returning to Toronto in 1947 Bigelow, along with a team of co-workers, continued his studies into the effects of hypothermia on body and heart metabolism. Initially their research showed that metabolism fell steadily as the body temperature was lowered. Their first attempt at open heart was made on a dog whose body temperature was lowered to 20° C, stopping circulation for 15 minutes. For the first time, a heart beating without blood was observed and in 1950, Dr. Bigelow and his colleague, Dr. John Callaghan, reported their hypothermia research at the American Surgical meeting in Denver, Colorado. Subsequent to their research, the first open-heart surgery on a human was performed in 1952 and, the following year, was combined with a crude heart-lung pump. In 1960, after continued refinements on the pump, the two techniques were combined and have been used by surgeons around the world on a daily basis since then.
A direct result of the hypothermia studies conducted by Bigelow and his co-workers was the observation that poking the stopped heart with a metal probe resulted in the heart responding with an effective contraction. Rhythmic poking produced satisfactory circulation and indicated that the heart was beating normally with good blood pressure. With electrical engineer John Hopps of the National Research Council of Canada and John Callaghan, Bigelow's trainee from the hypothermia studies, the three designed a circuit that provided electrical stimulation and a catheter electrode which was introduced via the external jugular vein to stimulate the sino-atrial node and allow electrical control of the cardiac rate for the first time. In 1950 their findings were presented before the Annual Surgical Congress of the American College of Surgeons in Boston where Paul Zoll learned of it and was inspired to continue his work. Bigelow and colleagues used the technique for cardiac rate control during open heart surgery and for management of patients with complete heart block. As stimulation of the sino-atrial node is ineffective in management of complete heart block, they eventually abandoned the approach for that purpose. Bigelow continued to become a prominent member of the founding generation of cardiac surgeons, directed the training program at the University of Toronto and educated a generation of Canadian cardiac surgeons, spreading his research and teaching influence world wide.
Interview Excerpts
Discovering that electrical stimulation will pace the heart (2:29 sec.; Real Audio)
Taking over the rhythm of a heart with an external device (1:43 sec.; Real Audio)
Two inches too short (with John Callaghan) (2:36 sec.; Real Audio)
Learning about physiology of the heart (with John Callaghan) (1:24 sec.; Real Audio)
The pacemaker (read by Seymour Furman) (2:43 sec.; Real Audio)
Excerpted from two interviews:
Interviewer: May 17, 1996 and August 15. 1996 (the latter interview includes John C. Callaghan)
Date: May 17, 1996
Place: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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