Lucky Number
By Kevin Beason
I was the first patient to have stopped-heart surgery at Cleveland Clinic. When I was older, my parents told me how experimental this was at the time. Without the surgery, I probably wouldn’t have lived.1
They took out a rib and a half and cut open my breastbone because my heart was enlarged. I have a scar from armpit to armpit. But I’ve never had any more problems with my heart.
I had the surgery on February 17, 1956. I was 17 months old. I weighed 17 pounds. And they kept me on the heart-lung machine 2 for 17 minutes.
Years later, I got a letter from Dr. Effler.3 He said 17 must be my lucky number.
![Cleveland Clinic caregivers perform a stopped-heart surgery in 1956.](https://magazine.clevelandclinic.org/hs-fs/hubfs/CC%20Magazine/100%20Stories/Lucky%20Number/Lucky-Number-950x950.jpg?width=950&height=950&name=Lucky-Number-950x950.jpg)
Cleveland Clinic caregivers perform a stopped-heart surgery in 1956. | Photo: Cleveland State University Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections
Notes
- Beason was born with a ventricular septal defect — i.e., a hole in his heart.
- Developed by Willem Kolff, MD, PhD.
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Donald Effler, MD, and Laurence Groves, MD, led the groundbreaking surgical team.