William Wallace Lumpkin Glenn (August 12, 1914 – March 10, 2003) was an American

cardiac surgeon Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (for example, with coronary artery bypass grafting); to corr ...

who co-created an early version of an

artificial heart An artificial heart is a device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in the case that a heart transplant (from a deceased human or, exper ...

and was the developer of a technique for the treatment of

congenital heart defect A congenital heart defect (CHD), also known as a congenital heart anomaly and congenital heart disease, is a defect in the structure of the heart or great vessels that is present at birth. A congenital heart defect is classed as a cardiovascul ...

s. Glenn was born on August 12, 1914, in Asheville, North Carolina. His father was a medical doctor and his mother an attorney. He was sent to attend the

Sewanee Military Academy St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School is a private, coeducational, Episcopal, boarding and day college preparatory school serving 216 students in grades six through twelve. It is located in Sewanee, Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau between Nashvill ...

Sewanee, Tennessee Sewanee () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Franklin County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,535 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Tullahoma, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area. Sewanee is best known as the home of ...

. He attended the University of South Carolina, graduating in 1934 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree. He attended

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Jefferson Medical College Thomas Jefferson University is a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in its earliest form in 1824, the university officially combined with Philadelphia University in 2017. To signify its heritage, the unive ...

, graduating with his medical degree in 1938. His

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...

was performed at

Pennsylvania Hospital Pennsylvania Hospital is a private, non-profit, 515-bed teaching hospital located in Center City Philadelphia and is part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Founded on May 11, 1751, by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond, Pennsyl ...

, while he performed his

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgra ...

in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Glenn served as a field surgeon in the Army Medical Corps, serving in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

where he established a field hospital in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

.Lavietes, Stuart
"William Glenn, 88, Surgeon Who Invented Heart Procedure"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', March 17, 2003. Accessed May 22, 2009. He was hired in October 1948 by Dr.

Gustaf Lindskog Gustaf Elmer Lindskog (7 February 1903 – 4 August 2002) was a thoracic surgeon and the William H. Carmalt Professor of Surgery and chair of surgery at the Yale School of Medicine, best known for having participated in the first pharmaceutical ...

, Chairman of the Department of Surgery, and was assigned to supervise the Surgical Laboratories and the Section of Cardiac Surgery (Cardiovascular). He was given the assignment of serving as thesis advisor to William Sewell, a student at

Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. The primary te ...

who was working on a required research project in which he was attempting to develop a heart pump. The original pump that was developed used components costing a total $24.80, which included a number of standard laboratory supplies, some assorted hardware and an

Erector Set Erector Set (trademark styled as "ERECTOR") was a brand of metal toy construction sets which were originally patented by Alfred Carlton Gilbert and first sold by his company, the Mysto Manufacturing Company of New Haven, Connecticut in 1913. In ...

. Glenn and Sewell presented the results of their experiments at the 1949 annual congress of the American College of Surgeons in

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. The model they presented took over the functions of the heart's right side, taking deoxygenated blood to the lungs. They reported that they had kept animals alive for up to 90 minutes using their device, without significant changes in blood pressure or oxygen saturation. The device created using the Erector Set is on display at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

's National Museum of American History. The Smithsonian acquired the heart pump in 1959 from Sewell's mother.Erector set heart pump, 1950
Smithsonian Institution Press / National Museum of American History. Accessed May 22, 2009. Glenn served as Yale's chief of cardiovascular surgery until 1975. There, he developed improvements to

cardiac pacemaker 350px, Image showing the cardiac pacemaker or SA node, the primary pacemaker within the electrical_conduction_system_of_the_heart">SA_node,_the_primary_pacemaker_within_the_electrical_conduction_system_of_the_heart. The_muscle_contraction.htm ...

s, and created the " Glenn shunt" (or "Glenn Operation") in 1954, a

vena cava In anatomy, the venae cavae (; singular: vena cava ; ) are two large veins (great vessels) that return deoxygenated blood from the body into the heart. In humans they are the superior vena cava and the inferior vena cava, and both empty into the ...

pulmonary artery A pulmonary artery is an artery in the pulmonary circulation that carries deoxygenated blood from the right side of the heart to the lungs. The largest pulmonary artery is the ''main pulmonary artery'' or ''pulmonary trunk'' from the heart, and ...

shunt that bypasses the defective right chambers of the heart of " Blue Babies", augmenting the inadequate blood flow to the lungs and thus providing oxygen that, when missing, gives the babies their blue color. He was the author of ''Glenn's Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery'', a standard textbook for the practice of vascular surgery that was in its sixth edition by the time of his death. From 1979 until 1981, he served as president of the American Heart Association, the first surgeon to be selected for the position. Glenn died at age 88 on March 10, 2003 in

Peterborough, New Hampshire Peterborough is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,418 at the 2020 census. The main village, with 3,090 people at the 2020 census, is defined as the Peterborough census-designated place (CDP) and ...

at Monadnock Community Hospital.Peart, Karen N
"In Memoriam: William W. L. Glenn, Pioneering Yale Cardiovascular Surgeon Who Developed First Radio Frequency Pacemakers"
''

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

press release dated March 18, 2003. Accessed May 22, 2009. He was survived by his wife Amory, as well as a son, a daughter and five grandchildren.

References

External links

William W. L. Glenn Papers (MS 1693).
Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Glenn, William 1914 births 2003 deaths United States Army personnel of World War II American cardiac surgeons People from Asheville, North Carolina People from Peterborough, New Hampshire Thomas Jefferson University alumni University of South Carolina alumni Massachusetts General Hospital residents 20th-century surgeons United States Army Medical Corps officers Inventors from North Carolina