Analysis of 39 Letters Concerned with the Late Professor Lee YK and Dr Lillehei and the Letters Were Written between Apr. 1958 and Dec. 1981

Kim, Won Gon

Abstract

Dr Lillehei (1918~1999) pioneered cardiac surgery with his landmark operations using cross-circulation in 1954 and 1955. With his dedications to open heart surgery, he is generally considered to be the father of open heart surgery by many medical historians. Dr Lillehei expanded his contributions to cardiac surgery with training 134 cardiothoracic surgeons at the University of Minnesota Hospital and he trained an additional 20 surgeons at the Cornell Medical Center. Dr Lillehei's trainees came from all over the world and Dr YK Lee (1921~1994) of Seoul National University was among them. He joined the University of Minnesota Hospital in 1957 as a part of the Minnesota project. During his stay for two years, in addition to experimental research, he learned clinical cardiac surgery as part of Dr Lillehei's team. In 1959, after returning to Korea, Dr Lee began his career as a full-time cardiac surgeon with establishing the Division of Cardiac Surgery at Seoul National University Hospital. Yet he encountered many difficult barriers in the process. During that time, Dr Lillehei was willing to share his experience and he provided many valuable resources for cardiac operations. With Dr Lillehei's kind help, the open heart surgery program was gradually and successfully established at Seoul National University Hospital. These two surgical titans from across the Pacific Ocean died in 1994 (Dr Lee) and 1999 (Dr Lillehei). They are gone, yet the proud Korean people have not forgotten them.