In
1929 in a small hospital in Eberswald Germany Werner
Forssmann, a young surgical resident, anesthetized
his own elbow, inserted a catheter in his antecubital
vein
and, catheter dangling from his arm, proceeded to a
basement x-ray room where he documented the catheter's
position
in his right atrium — proving that a catheter could
be inserted safely into a human heart.
Forssmann's goal was to find a safe way to inject drugs for cardiac resuscitation.
He was determined that catheterization was the key, but it was believed at the
time that any entry into the heart would be fatal. Forssmann was immediately
fired for his self-experimentation, despite the significance of his discovery.
The popular press acclaimed his work, but the medical establishment branded him
as crazy, scorning him and ignoring his work for over a decade.
He continued to experiment with catheterization in dogs and it is alleged that
he stopped self-experimentation only when he had used all of his veins with 17
cut downs. Discouraged by his lack of acceptance in cardiology he switched to
urology and eventually became a country doctor. He never returned to cardiology
research but was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1956 (along with cardiology innovators
Cournand and Richards) for his pioneering efforts.
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