Adrian Kantrowitz

Adrian Kantrowitz (October 4, 1918 – November 14, 2008) was an American cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first pediatric heart transplant at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn on December 6, 1967. It was only the second time that a human heart had been transplanted into another human being, taking place just three days after Christiaan Barnard's seminal attempt in South Africa made headlines around the world and ushered in a new era in clinical organ transplantation. Kantrowitz also invented the intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP), a left ventricular assist device (L-VAD), and an early version of the implantable pacemaker. Kantrowitz was born in New York City on October 4, 1918. His mother was a costume designer and his father...