Tomorrow’s Tech Treepowered by Astra

Surgery & Medical Devices · Recorded milestone

Heart-lung machine

Recorded year1953

John Gibbon's machine takes over a patient's heart and lungs while he closes a hole in her heart, starting open-heart surgery.

Explore this milestone on the interactive map

Built on

Blood groupsRecorded · 1901requires
Sewing blood vessels togetherRecorded · 1902enables
National electricity gridRecorded · 1926enables

Led to

Mechanical heart valveRecorded · 1960enables
Heart transplantRecorded · 1967enables
Artificial heartRecorded · 1982enables
Cold suspension for traumaForecast · ~2035enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.