Narrative Highlight: Don B. Olsen

In December of 2002 we conducted preliminary email interviews with leading figures in the field of bionics. The text below comes from the exchange with Don B. Olsen, DVM, Utah Artificial Heart Institute.

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3. What mechanical devices or machines have you had experience with experimentally, and what were the greatest challenges in your work? (answered by scientists and researchers only)

I joined Dr. Kolff full time in June 1972. Prior to that date I was a consultant to his artificial heart research. Until 1972 all artificial hearts were implanted into calves/sheep by clinically trained surgeons and they used the mid-sternal approach that was routine to get maximal exposure/access to the heart. If one can visualize a quadruped attempting to stand after its sternum had been split with all of the forces/weight of the front end of the animal forcing the sternum to divide. This induced a great deal of pain and the recovery from surgery was greatly retarded. My greatest contribution and global achievement was to introduce the left lateral thoracotomy approach, and to standardize the entire surgical procedure in implanting blood pumps in calves/sheep. All groups, both Foreign and domestic, doing research on both ventricular assist devices (VADs) and total artificial hearts (TAHs) adopted my demonstrated left lateral surgical approach and standardized procedures.