Forty percent of people who developed bowel obstructions died of them, up until the 1960s.
Now it's less than four percent.
Dr. Henry Buchwald's new book chronicles his work with the pioneering young surgeon at the University of Minnesota's Medical School who developed that surgery, as well as ground-breaking techniques for opeh heart surgery, transplant surgery, bariatric surgery and more.
But of all Dr. Owen Wangensteen's advances in medicine, Buchwald points to his mentor's emphasis on research as one of the most significant.
Surgical Renaissance in the Heartland: A Memoir of the Wangensteen Era by Henry Buchwald is published by the University of Minnesota Press.