In 1952, a group of surgeons performed the world's first successful open-heart surgery at the University of Minnesota. They knew they had just a few minutes -- 10 at the very most -- after cutting off their patient's circulation to slice into her heart and sew up a hole inside, before risking damage to her brain. If left untreated, the hole could have killed her within a few years. It took them five and a half minutes to do the procedure -- and the patient lived.
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To read the original article: The Bleeding Edge
