University of Washington physicians and surgeons performed the West Coast’s first open heart surgery

On Aug. 1, 1956, Dr. K. Alvin Merendino at the University of Washington in Seattle performed the first successful open-heart bypass surgery in the western U.S.

The patient was thirteen-year-old Tommy Fangboner from Ellensburg, WA and he died in 1991.

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Source: University of Washington
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