Discusssion

Records retrieved prior to the demolition of the old medical block at Guy’s tell a story of intracardiac surgery before cardiopulmonary bypass. WWII provided a climate of Anglo-American collaboration which challenged previously discounted surgical possibilities. 1.​In 1944 a Brompton trained surgeon, serving in the US Army in Gloucestershire, showed that the heart was no longer a no go area by removing missiles from the beating heart. 2.​In 1947 wartime comrades from Guy’s and Johns Hopkins arranged for a collaboration that convinced the world that cyanotic heart disease could be relieve by operation. The foundations of hypothermia and heart transplantation were also found in the work of the Club. The principle contribution, relieving valve stenosis within the beating heart, was eclipsed by the advent of clinical perfusion but their team work remains a model of clinical scientific collaboration.