Who She Is:
Dr. Nina Braunwald was born on March 2, 1928, in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Morris C. and Mary Starr. As she grew up her education was mostly in public schools. She later went on to attend Washington Square College of Arts and Sciences at New York University and attended medical school at the New York University School of Medicine.
Dr. Nina Braunwald was originally training as a general surgeon at New York Bellevue Hospital, but after taking a year off for a fellowship under Charles Hufnagel, she began training as a cardiac surgeon. She then finished her residency at Georgetown University Medical Center and decided to transfer there, where she was also chief resident. Dr. Braunwald then moved on to receive training as a cardiac surgeon from Andrew Morrow, who was the chief at the Clinic of Surgery at the National Heart Institute (NHI). With his help and guidance, she went on to enter academic surgery and became the first woman to be certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.
Her Contribution to Cardiothoracic Surgery:
Dr. Braunwald received in depth training from Dr. Morrow. Despite leaving his service and lacking his support, she remained confident in herself, believing that she could perform the first successful mitral valve replacement. A mitral valve replacement is the process in which a surgeon removes the mitral valve and replaces it with a cow, pig, or mechanical one.
Today the equipment and resources we have has made it an easier surgery to perform, however, in the past, these materials were not available. As well as the fact that this surgery had not been performed successfully. Many of the mitral valves attempted would become damaged because of rheumatic heart disease. Dr. Braunwald, with the help of Dr. Morrow and Dr. Cooper, decided to completely replace the native mitral valve with a prosthetics mitral valve. The prosthesis they designed had flexible polyurethane flaps for valve leaflets and Teflon ribbon for chordae tendineae.
Before Dr. Braunwald performed the surgery on a human she decided to perform it on 24 dogs. At the age of 32, Dr. Braunwald performed the first successful artificial human mitral valve replacement on a 40 year old woman.
Dr. Braunwald greatly impacted cardiothoracic surgery through her development of the Braunwald-Cutter valve.
Works Cited
-Image 1 courtesy of https://images.app.goo.gl/a1XXTVVBB6eRnxne6
-Image 2 courtesy of https://images.app.goo.gl/YheDQxi1vFev93cQ7
-Image 3 courtesy of https://images.app.goo.gl/x4yN6M7dfnNvFQ2BA
-Tex Heart Inst J. 2017 Apr;44(2): 96-100 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5408644/
-Sage Journals. “Nina Braunwald: The First Female Cardiothoracic Surgeon” Vol 88, issue 2, Dec 2022 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003134820982575
-Changing the Face of Medicine, Biography, Nina Starr Braunwald https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_41.html
About the Author
My name is Amanda Castillo and I am 14 years old, a freshman in high school, but next year I’ll be a sophomore. I have had an interest in becoming a doctor. I never knew what type until now. I want to become a surgeon.
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