Wilfred bigelow biography

Dr Wilfred Gordon Bigelow was the.
Wilfred Gordon "Bill" Bigelow OC FRSC was a Canadian heart surgeon known for his role in developing the artificial pacemaker and the use of hypothermia in open heart surgery.
Wilfred Gordon "Bill" Bigelow OC FRSC (June 18, 1913 – March 27, 2005) was a Canadian heart surgeon known for his role in developing the artificial pacemaker.

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Dr. Wilfred G. Bigelow Biographical Sketch

Dr. Wilfred Gordon Bigelow was born June 18, 1913 in Brandon, Manitoba, the son of Grace Ann Carnegie Gordon Bigelow and Dr. Wilfred Abram Bigelow. Dr. W.A. Bigelow (1879-1966) was a general practitioner and surgeon, a charter member of the American College of Surgeons (1913), and the founder of the first private medical clinic in Canada, in Brandon, 1913.

Dr. W.G. Bigelow was educated at Brandon collegiate, Brentwood College in Victoria, B.C., Brandon College (1931), and the University of Toronto (B.A. 1935, M.D. 1938, M.S. 1938). His post-graduate medical/surgical training included surgical residencies under Dr. W.E. Gallie at the Toronto General Hospital (TGH), 1938-1941, and a Research Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, 1946-47, where he trained in vascular and cardiac surgery under Dr. Richard Bing and Dr. Alfred Blalock, the founder of modern cardiac surgery.

In July 1941, Dr. Bigelow married Margaret Ruth Jennings, then Assistant Head Nurse at TGH. During the Second World War Dr. Bigelow served in the Royal Can

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The founding father of cardiovascular surgery

A world-renowned surgeon and an imaginative scientist

Dr. Wilfred Gordon Bigelow's key discovery was recognizing how to lower the body's oxygen requirements while lowering the body's core temperature to a point at which safe open heart surgery was possible. Soon after, Bigelow made history again. During an experimental surgery, Drs. Bigelow and John C. Callaghan ran into an unexpected situation; the dog’s heart suddenly stopped beating. The heart was normal in all respects, and in desperation, Dr. Bigelow “gave it a good poke”. The heart contracted, and with repeated pokes simulated regular heart beats, they obtained a blood pressure reading. Electrical impulses given to the sinoatrial node had the same result – they had just found the makings of an artificial cardiac pacemaker.

Key Facts

Made important contributions to heart surgery with the use of hypothermia to slow tissue metabolism, protecting the heart and brain from damage.

Authored more than 120 articles and publications, includin

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Memorable Manitobans: Wilfred Abram Bigelow (1879-1967)

Wilfred Abram Bigelow
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Physician.

Born in Kingsport, Nova Scotia on 30 November 1879, he came to Winnipeg in 1897 and swept floors in a doctor’s office for three dollars per week. Lamed for life at the age of 16, he learned Latin on his own and graduated from the Manitoba Medical College in 1903.

He first set up medical practice at Souris, then at Brandon in 1906, where in 1915 he founded Canada’s first medical clinic. Bigelow’s clinic was modelled on the Mayo Clinic, and consisted of a group of specialists who worked together to provide medical treatment and who presented the patient with a joint bill. Early partners in the clinic included Lewis James Carter (1915), Herbert Samuel Sharpe (1915), Sidney James Shepherd Peirce (1917), Henry Oliver McDiarmid (1918), and Robert Parker Cromarty (1920). They travelled across southwestern Manitoba by horse and later by automobile for many years.