Kolff, are there any personal inventive challenges that you e taking on right now?
Willem Kolff: Yes. I can show you an invention that’s four days old. In the last few years, some surgeons have been wrapping a large muscle, the latissimus dorsi, around a failing heart. This skeletal muscle, when stimulated electrically, can be retrained and can begin to pulse and take over part of the heart function. The problem, however, is that you must have a very sick patient, or you wouldn’t do it. And you need six weeks before this muscle is trained. About a week ago we conceived the idea that we would combine it with an air pump. I called Dr. Stevenson in Detroit, who is a world expert on this. I said, “I’ll make one for you. Give me ten days and you’ll have one.” He said, “I’ll put it in an animal and I’ll test it for you.” These are the exciting things for the inventor. So, you’ve just invented that? Willem Kolff: Yeah. So it’s not necessarily true that when you’re older you stop being inventive. Let me show you for a moment how these clam shell hearts work. This is the righ
