Richard DeWall

Richard A. DeWall (1926-2016), was an American cardiothoracic surgeon who in 1955 created the first workable, portable bubble oxygenator that removed bubbles, thus avoiding gas embolism during cardiopulmonary bypass. Later, he wrote the original plans for what became the Wright State University School of Medicine.

Richard DeWall
DeWall and bubble oxygenator heart-lung machine, Nov. 1956.[1]
Born16 December 1926
Died15 August 2016
Known forDeveloping the bubble oxygenator
Medical career
Professioncardiothoracic surgery

Early life and education

Richard Alison DeWall was born on 16 December 1926 to Grace Gardner and Herman Harvey DeWall in Appleton, Minnesota. After serving in the U.S. Navy until October 1945, he graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1949 and subsequently gained his MD in 1953.[2][3][4][5]

Career

John Gibbon had invented the heart-lung bypass machine and performed the first repair of the heart from the inside of the heart, using extracorporal perfusion in 1953. In 1955, John W. Kirklin, who was a surgeon also researching heart-lung machines, was successful in using Gibbon’s modified heart-lung machine via a pump-oxygenator. Soon C. Walton Lillehei, who worked nearby, abandoned his technique of cross-circulation via a parent as a method of diverting blood through an external circuit. Gaining experience of the heart-lung machine while taking care of the procedure during anaesthetists breaks and challenged by Lillehei to find a solution to the undesired bubbles, DeWall became interested in the problems connected with oxygenating blood and in 1955, developed the first bubble oxygenator that removed bubbles, thus avoiding gas embolism. Silicon antifoam and Mayon polyethylene tubing were two important components of this Lillehei-DeWall bubble oxygenator. 350 open-heart operations were performed at the University of Minnesota within the following two years.[5]

DeWall founded the first open heart surgery programme at Kettering Hospital and later became the director of the general surgery residency-training programme there, which he established.[6]

Death and legacy

DeWall died at his home 15 August 2016.[2]

In 2018 he was posthumously inducted into the Dayton Region's Walk of Fame.[7] A replica of his first oxygenator is on display at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.[2]

Selected publications

References
  1. Minnesota, University of (1956-11-20). "RichardDeWall and the "bubble oxygenator" heart-lung machine". "Heart Surgery," Photograph Collection. University of Minnesota Archives. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  2. "Richard Alison DeWall M.D. 1926 - 2016". www.legacy.com. 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  3. Molella, Arthur P.; Karvellas, Anna (2015). Places of Invention. Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 9781935623687.
  4. Iaizzo, Paul A. (2015). Handbook of Cardiac Anatomy, Physiology, and Devices. Springer. p. 447. ISBN 978-3-319-19464-6.
  5. "Pioneer heart surgeon Richard A. DeWall, M.D., a founding father of the medical school, dies at 89 | News and Announcements | Boonshoft School of Medicine | Wright State University". medicine.wright.edu. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  6. "Richard A. DeWall". www.daytonwalkoffame.citymax.com. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
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