ABOVE: When he was once asked to quantify Wangensteen's achievements, former Medical School Dean Harold S. Diehl chose to focus on his ability to inspire and develop young physicians. "It is an ability which great teachers possess and through which they gain a type of immortality."
Wangensteen the teacher
Former trainees credit him with encouraging and inspiring them to test their ideas
He said it himself: the best teachers are those who inspire excellence in others. Under that definition, Owen H. Wangensteen, M.D., Ph.D., ranks among the best of the best.
From 1930 to 1967, Wangensteen headed the University of
Minnesota's Department of Surgery, where he broke ground in treatments for
bowel obstruction and duodenal ulcer. And perhaps even more important, he
trained many surgeons during his tenure who have gone on to blaze their own
trails.
Wangensteen trained F. John Lewis, M.D., Ph.D., who led the world's first
successful open-heart surgery in 1952 using hypothermia. Another Wangensteen
trainee who participated in that surgery, C. Walton Lillehei, M.D., Ph.D.,
introduced the technique of cross-circulation in 1954. "In that development,
I was only the sideline cheerleader and the waterboy," Wangensteen once
told an audience at the University of Minnesota. Richard A. DeWall, M.D.,
also a Wangensteen trainee, introduced the heart-lung machine a year later.
Heart surgeries using a refined version of that heart-lung machine are still
performed hundreds of times a day all over the world.
Wangensteen's "strong and abiding interest in research" is the reason that open-heart surgery was born at the University of Minnesota, says John S. Najarian, M.D., Wangensteen's successor as chairman of the Department of Surgery.
Two lions of transplant surgery also earned their Ph.D.s under Wangensteen's watch: Christiaan N. Barnard, M.D., Ph.D., the South African surgeon who performed the first human heart transplant in 1967, and Norman E. Shumway, M.D., Ph.D., the American who devised the technique for heart transplants.
Wangensteen never worried about his students rising to glories
above his own, says J. Ernesto Molina, M.D., Ph.D., the last student to earn
his Ph.D. under the great teacher. In fact, he says Wangensteen was
proud when they did.
"He was never jealous," Molina says. "I had never seen a doctor
like him. He considered himself just the helper to get everyone ahead."
Plant a tree for prosperity in the orchard of your profession. It will give you enduring satisfaction though you may never live to see it mature; its growth can project your image and wishes far into time and space.— Owen H. Wangensteen, M.D., Ph.D.
Under Wangensteen's direction, the Department of Surgery rose to national acclaim. He remained deeply committed to his residents and fellows, who were like family to him. Wangensteen founded the Surgical Forum at the American College of Surgeons as a chance for up-and-coming surgeons to share their ideas and research findings.
When Wangensteen spoke to his peers, he wouldn't
cite what was written in the textbooks, Najarian says. Instead, his talks
were based on research and experience. And he always brought a historical context
to the conversation.
During Wangensteen's retirement, he wrote a book called The Rise of
Surgery: From Empiric Craft to Scientific Discipline, written with
his wife, Sarah Davidson Wangensteen. He also regularly attended
grand rounds and remained an active member of the department.
The University has recognized his teaching efforts in many ways. In 1962, Wangensteen earned the Medical Alumni Society's first Harold S. Diehl Award for his outstanding contributions to the Medical School. In 1966 he was named a Regents Professor. In 1982 — the year after he died — the Department of Surgery established the Wangensteen Award for Excellence in Teaching in his honor.
Many surgeons who went on to accomplish groundbreaking work credit Wangensteen for giving them the encouragement and freedom they needed to explore new ideas, new methods, and new devices.
And that had always been Wangensteen's mission. As he once proclaimed in an article for the Journal of the American Medical Association: "Plant a tree for prosperity in the orchard of your profession. It will give you enduring satisfaction though you may never live to see it mature; its growth can project your image and wishes far into time and space."