Robert Berger (September 26, 1929 – January 1, 2016) was a Hungarian-American

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

specializing in

cardiology Cardiology () is the study of the heart. Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery di ...

and

pulmonology Pulmonology (, , from Latin ''pulmō, -ōnis'' "lung" and the Greek suffix "study of"), pneumology (, built on Greek πνεύμων "lung") or pneumonology () is a medical specialty that deals with diseases involving the respiratory tract. ...

. He is known for leading the team of physicians whose patient was the first to survive surgery to implant a partial

artificial heart An artificial heart is a artificial organ, device that replaces the human heart, heart. Artificial hearts are typically used as a bridge to heart transplantation, but ongoing research aims to develop a device that could permanently replace the ...

. A

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivor, Berger is also known for his scholarship on ethics in the medical profession during and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Early life and education

Berger was born in 1929 in

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

, Hungary. After being forced into hiding during the Holocaust, he eventually crossed the Atlantic and settled in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, where he attended

Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

(in Cambridge), and later, the

Boston University School of Medicine The Boston University School of Medicine (formally the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine) is the medical school of Boston University, a private university, private research university in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in ...

Career

Berger played a leading role in numerous pioneering surgical procedures of the

heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

and

lungs The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans. In mammals and most other tetrapods, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart. Their function in the respiratory syste ...

. In 1965, he assisted in the first case of a total exchange of blood in a young patient. He also broke ground in the understanding of lung volume reduction surgery, and he helped to develop that procedure. Berger was one of the notable physicians whose work led to the development of an

. In 1978, Berger headed the team working with a patient who became the first to survive the implantation of a partial artificial heart. At the Boston University School of Medicine, Berger reported that he and his colleagues saved the life of a heart attack victim with the installation of a partial artificial heart device known as the Left Ventricular Assist Device. Starting in 1990, Berger became an outspoken critic of academics citing the scientific experiments conducted on concentration camp prisoners in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. In a study he published that year, Berger argued that, despite numerous citations in the scientific literature, such experiments contained scientific inconsistencies, improper methods, and apparent data falsification. Berger eventually became director of clinical research in the division of thoracic surgery and

interventional pulmonology Interventional pulmonology (IP, also called interventional pulmonary medicine) is a maturing medical sub-specialty from its parent specialty of pulmonary medicine. It deals specifically with minimally invasive endoscopic and percutaneous procedure ...

at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Personal life

Berger was married to a fellow doctor, Patricia Downs Berger, and had two daughters, Shana and Ilana. He died in 2016 at age 86.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Robert 1929 births 2016 deaths People from Debrecen Hungarian Holocaust survivors Hungarian emigrants to the United States Boston Latin School alumni Harvard College alumni Boston University School of Medicine alumni American thoracic surgeons