Cardiologist, anti-war activist Bernard Lown dies at 99
Source: Associated Press
Cardiologist, anti-war activist Bernard Lown dies at 99
February 16, 2021
BOSTON (AP) Dr. Bernard Lown, a Massachusetts cardiologist who invented the first reliable heart defibrillator and later co-founded an anti-nuclear war group that was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, died Tuesday. He was 99.
The Boston Globe reported the Lithuania-born doctors health had been declining from congestive heart failure. He died in his Boston-area home.
Lown, who was a professor at Harvard University and a physician at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, had helped advance cardiac treatment.
Hed been among the first doctors to emphasize the importance of diet and exercise in treating heart disease and introduced the drug Lidocaine as a treatment for arrhythmia, the Globe reports. In 1962, Lown invented the direct-current defibrillator, or cardioverter, which uses electric shocks to get hearts to resume beating.
He was also an outspoken social activist, founding Physicians for Social Responsibility in 1960 and later co-founding International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in the 1980s, the newspaper reports.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/boston-nobel-prizes-lithuania-massachusetts-2ce00f16b928b60fe3ec4b3858e7fc23
Backseat Driver
(4,338 posts)niyad
(112,434 posts)AllaN01Bear
(17,372 posts)i am glad to know who invented the zapper that will get my heart back into happy beats . thank you sir. bookmarked for future reference .