How open heart surgery came to Hawaii.

The evolution of open heart surgery had its beginnings in 1938 with the closing of a patent ductus arteriosus. In 1954 Hawaii began to perform right heart catheterizations and a bubble oxygenator was made locally out of plastic food tubing and a Sigmamotor double head pump. The first open heart surgery was successfully performed at Queen's Hospital in December 1959 on a woman from Hilo with a large interatrial septal defect (IASD).