King of Hearts

The subject of G. Wayne Miller's account is C. Walton Lillehei, the surgeon whom many regard as the father of open-heart surgery. Working with colleagues at University Hospital in Minneapolis, alongside a small group of pioneers elsewhere, Lillehei opened the heart and repaired defects that had been fatal, a feat many experts had considered impossible. Beginning in the 1950s, the Minnesota surgeons performed highly unorthodox operations on two people at once, and the risks they took cost several early patients their lives. Archival research supports the account, along with exclusive interviews Miller held with Lillehei and fellow pioneers including Christiaan Barnard and Michael DeBakey, following the doctors and their patients toward the breakthrough.

It appears among the books Peter Attia sees as important for anyone interested in his career path, as described in Peter Attia: In Search of Still Water.