About the Author

G. Wayne Miller is a staff writer at The Providence Journal, where he has won numerous journalism awards. He is the author of a novel and three nonfiction books. He lives in Pascoag, R.I., and can be reached at www.gwaynemiller.com.

Reviews

"King of Hearts is 'The Right Stuff' of open heart surgery."
-- Jonathan Harr, bestselling author of A Civil Action

"Dr. Walt Lillehei was one of the unsung heroes of surgery in the 20th century. King of Hearts is a fascinating and suspenseful inside portrait of how this pioneer blazed a trail for all heart surgeons. It is a story of historical importance, and Wayne Miller tells it with precision and great spirit."
-- Dr. Christiaan Barnard, heart transplant pioneer

Open-heart surgery is now almost routine in the United States, but just a few decades ago the idea of repairing cardiac defects by cutting into a living human heart was almost unthinkable. Yet thanks to the efforts of a talented few who refused to believe it couldn't be done, open-heart surgery became a reality in the 1950s. Chief among its pioneers was the intense and flamboyant Minnesota surgeon Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, whose story Miller tells here in thriller style. Miller, a staff writer for the Providence Journal, re-creates the anxieties and excitement of an era poised on the brink of astonishing technological advances but stymied by a disease that killed more than 625,000 Americans annually. Lillehei was convinced that open-heart surgery was the answer--but how to divert blood from the heart and still keep the patient alive? Lillehei's first attempts, in 1954, used a complex and risky donor-patient blood exchange. Several of his first patients died; behind his back, nurses began calling him "murderer." By 1955, however, Lillehei and his colleague Richard DeWall perfected a simplified heart-lung machine made with beer hose and plastic tubing ("a high school science fair project was more complex," Miller observes) that finally allowed Lillehei to achieve his dream of "bringing advanced open-heart surgery to the masses." Lillehei's innovations revolutionized cardiac surgery; many believed he would win a Nobel prize. Instead, the surgeon was disgraced when he was found guilty of tax fraud in 1973. Miller's fast-paced and scrupulously researched account reveals both the exhilaration and the tragedy of Lillehei's story. Agent, Kay McCaulay, Pimlico Agency. (Feb.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

"King of Hearts is 'The Right Stuff' of open heart surgery."
-- Jonathan Harr, bestselling author of A Civil Action

"Dr. Walt Lillehei was one of the unsung heroes of surgery in the 20th century. King of Hearts is a fascinating and suspenseful inside portrait of how this pioneer blazed a trail for all heart surgeons. It is a story of historical importance, and Wayne Miller tells it with precision and great spirit."
-- Dr. Christiaan Barnard, heart transplant pioneer