This aortic dilator designed by the donor Charles P. Bailey, M.D. (1911-1993) was used to widen calcified aortic leaflets, allowing blood to flow more freely through the Mitral valve. In 1948 Dr. Bailey a pioneering cardiac surgeon was the first to attempt an operation for Mitral commissurotomy. Upon reaching the heart Dr. Bailey slipped a finger inside the heart and opened the leaflets with a small knife. The surgery was performed "blind" going into the heart with his index finger with a blade attached and widening the valve. Bailey first four patients did not survive but the fifth patient was a success. First successful June 10, 1948.
After World War II physicians in Britain and the United States returned to the question of operating on the mitral valve to relieve stenosis. In Boston Dwight Harken, Russell Brock in England Horace Smithy in Charleston, SC.
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