31 Facts About Bernard Lown

Bernard Lown was a Lithuanian-American cardiologist and inventor.

Bernard Lown introduced a new use for the drug lidocaine to control heartbeat disturbances.

Bernard Lown's investigations led to many medical break-throughs, among them the coronary care unit.

Bernard Lown's work made possible and safe much of modern cardiac surgery, as well as a host of other innovations.

In 1985, Bernard Lown accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, an organization he co-founded with Soviet cardiologist Yevgeny Chazov, who later was Minister Of Health of the USSR.

Bernard Lown was the founder of the Lown Cardiovascular Center and Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation.

Bernard Lown founded the Lown Institute, which aims to reform both the healthcare system and society.

Bernard Lown was born in Utena, Lithuania as Boruch Lac, on June 7,1921, the son of Nison and Bela Lac.

Bernard Lown's family was Jewish, and one of his grandfathers was a rabbi.

Bernard Lown went on to study zoology at the University of Maine, obtaining a bachelor's degree from that institution in 1942.

Bernard Lown helped raise international medical awareness of sudden cardiac death as a leading cause of mortality in the developed world.

In 1959, Bernard Lown demonstrated that AC was injurious to the heart and could be lethal.

Bernard Lown went on to investigate the possibilities of the defibrillator to treat non-life-threatening tachycardias.

Bernard Lown discovered that timing the electrical discharge outside the heart's brief vulnerable period of 0.03 seconds in duration prevented ventricular fibrillation or sudden cardiac death.

Bernard Lown's discovery led to abandonment of long acting digitalis drugs like digitoxin.

Bernard Lown focused medical attention on potassium loss with the use of various diuretics.

In 1964, Bernard Lown introduced a new use for the drug lidocaine to control ventricular disordered heart rhythms.

In 1957, Bernard Lown was concerned with how to visualize an atherosclerotic aortic plaque occurring in the big coronary vessels that supply nutrients to the heart muscle.

Bernard Lown received a grant from the Hartford Foundation to pursue fiber optics.

Bernard Lown's work did show that, with fiber optics, it was possible to measure oxygen saturation in dogs, and determine the cardiac output in humans.

Paradoxically, when Bernard Lown submitted two abstracts to the World Cardiology Conference in Mexico in 1964, one on the defibrillator and cardioversion, and one dealing with fiber optics, the former was rejected and the latter accepted.

In early 1961, Bernard Lown called together a group of physicians from Boston's teaching hospitals to address the mounting threat of nuclear war between the USSR and the USA.

Bernard Lown was involved in organizing COR, the Committee of Responsibility to Save War Burned and War Injured Children, of which he was a leading member.

Bernard Lown was persuaded to support the objective of COR.

In 1980, Bernard Lown called on a small number of doctors to organize against the mounting nuclear threat that followed USSR's invasion of Afghanistan and the election of the Reagan administration.

Bernard Lown headed the American Sudden Death Task Force, while Chazov headed the Soviet group of cardiologists.

The Bernard Lown Institute is currently conducting research on risk-adjustment methods for evaluating patient outcomes.

Bernard Lown married Louise Bernard Lown, a cousin of his, in 1946.

Bernard Lown died on February 16,2021, at his home in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

Bernard Lown was 99, and suffered from congestive heart failure and pneumonia prior to his death.

The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which Bernard Lown co-founded, won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.