US $1 Coin 2024 – Maine – Defibrillator

Περιγραφή

Dr. Bernard Lown was a Lithuanian-American cardiologist who dedicated his heart to saving lives. He emigrated to the United States in 1935 to escape Nazi persecution due to his Jewish heritage and eventually settled in his new hometown of Lewiston, Maine. Lown continued his medical studies and invented the direct current defibrillator, a life-saving device that uses direct electrical current synchronized with the cardiac cycle to correct abnormal heart rhythms, which are believed to account for 40% of fatal heart attacks in the United States.
Together with engineer Baruch Berkowitz, Dr. Lown began experimenting with his new device in 1961, testing it on 11 patients—some in critical condition—all of whom were restored to normal heart rhythms thanks to Lown’s defibrillator. By 1964, thousands of hospitals were using Dr. Lown’s invention to save countless lives. The direct current defibrillator led to the development of other important cardiac devices, including pacemakers and implantable defibrillators, which are used by millions of Americans today.