Tales from the Wild West of Cardiac Surgery | Gerald Imber, MD

The Doctor's Art

Henry Bair and Tyler Johnson

Medicine, Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Philosophy

5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The history of cardiac surgery is filled with tales of intrepid surgeons with larger-than-life personalities who pushed the limits of the human body and the bounds of what were then considered acceptable medical practices. The result? Heart transplants, pacemakers, artificial heart valves, heart-lung machines, and other once-unthinkable and experimental procedures that have now saved millions of lives.

Our guest in this episode, Gerald Imber, MD, charts these remarkable developments in his 2024 book Cardiac Cowboys: The Heroic Invention of Heart Surgery. While not writing books on the history of medicine, Dr. Imber is a practicing plastic surgeon who specializes in cosmetic surgery. Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Imber talks about the challenging yet rewarding training he underwent as a surgery resident, what it means to have an “eye for aesthetics,” why he decided to write a book on the history of heart surgery, stories of daring surgeons from this history, how he reconciles the drive to push the frontiers of medicine with a regard for patient safety, and more.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

2:15 - What drew Dr. Imber to a career in surgery

7:55 - Dr. Imber’s grueling experiences as a general surgery resident

11:52 - Dr. Imber’s transition into plastic surgery and the aesthetic sensibilities necessary for this speciality

22:46 - What Dr. Imber’s current plastic surgery practice looks like

24:28 - How Dr. Imber finds fulfillment and meaning in his work

25:21 - What motivated Dr. Imber to write Cardiac Cowboys, a book about the history of open heart surgery

30:47 - Balancing risks to patient lives with medical and surgical experimentation

34:25 - A brief history of open heart surgery

40:02 - Key milestones in the development of open heart surgery

45:24 - What Dr. Imber hopes readers take away from Cardiac Cowboys

Dr. Gerald Imber is the author of Cardiac Cowboys: The Heroic Invention of Heart Surgery (2024) and Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted (2010).

Dr. Imber can be found on Instagram at @geraldimbermd.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Henry Bear.
0:03.0	And I'm Tyler Johnson.
0:05.0	And you're listening to The Doctors Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine.
0:09.0	Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered.
0:13.2	What makes medicine meaningful?
0:15.1	Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors?
0:18.8	How can we build health care institutions that nurture the doctor-patient connection.
0:23.0	What can we learn about the human condition
0:24.8	from accompanying our patients in times of suffering?
0:28.0	In seeking answers to these questions,
0:30.0	we meet with deep thinkers working across health care,
0:33.0	from doctors and nurses to patients and health care
0:35.4	executives, those who have collected a career's worth of hard-earned wisdom.
0:40.1	Probing the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear stories that are by turns heart-breaking, amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening.
0:49.0	We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do.
0:52.8	Join us as we think out loud about what illness and healing can teach us
0:57.1	about some of life's biggest questions.
1:02.1	The history of cardiac surgery is scattered with tales of intrepid surgeons with larger-than-life
1:07.4	personalities who push the limits of the human body and the bounds of what were considered
1:12.4	acceptable medical practices of the time.
1:15.1	The result, open heart surgeries, pacemakers, heart transplants, artificial heart valves, heart
1:20.9	lung machines, and other once unthinkable and experimental procedures that have now
	...

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