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John W. Kirklin
(5 Aug 1917 - 21 Apr 2004)
American heart surgeon who revolutionized cardiovascular surgery through his improvement of the heart-lung machine originally designed by Gibbon. Kirklin was then able to perform the world's first series of open-heart operations using a heart-lung machine.
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Science Quotes by John W. Kirklin (2 quotes)
At a given instant everything the surgeon knows suddenly becomes important to the solution of the problem. You can't do it an hour later, or tomorrow. Nor can you go to the library and look it up.
— John W. Kirklin
Quoted in 'The Best Hope of All', Time (3 May 1963)
Surgery is always second best. If you can so something else, it’s better. Surgery is limited. It is operating on someone who has no place else to go.
— John W. Kirklin
'The Best Hope of All', Time (3 May 1963)
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
