Thomas Fogarty
| Thomas P. Fogarty | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 25, 1934 Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Residence | California |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | medical inventions, winemaking |
Dr. Thomas J. "Tom" Fogarty (born on February 25, 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American surgeon and inventor of the embolectomy catheter. Before his invention the success rate for removing an embolus, or blood clot, was forty to fifty percent. In 1965, Dr. Thomas Fogarty published an article describing "a new method for extraction of arterial emboli and thrombi."
The balloon embolectomy catheter was used on a human patient for the first time six weeks after Fogarty came up with the idea in 1961. Today, using only local anesthesia, the procedure only takes about an hour.
Fogarty’s inventions and the many others that resulted from his original embolectomy catheter heavily influenced the way surgery was performed. Considered one of the pioneers of minimally-invasive surgery, Fogarty has said: "I had no concept that [non-invasive surgery] would reach the magnitude that it has." As a result of the embolectomy catheter and other inventions, Dr. Fogarty, still alive today, went on to win many prizes (including the National Medal for Technology and Innovation in 2012.) Dr Fogarty has patented over sixty inventions.
On February 25, 1934, Fogarty was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father worked as a railroad engineer, but died when Fogarty was eight years old.
Fogarty cites his father’s absence as a factor that nurtured his own creative nature as an inventor. He fixed things that his mother needed fixed, and he worked with soapbox derby cars and model airplanes. "I just had a natural inclination and inquisitive nature about building things. I looked at things and just naturally thought, 'Okay, how can I make this better?'" His business side was evident in childhood as well. The model airplanes that he built were sold to neighborhood kids. When he became frustrated with motor scooter gears, he built and sold a centrifugal clutch.
Fogarty was not a good student, and his original career goal was to be a boxer. “I wasn’t a very good kid. They sent me to a camp to keep me out of trouble. One of the routine activities was boxing.
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Wikipedia