Werner Forssmann

Werner Forssmann was probably unknown to you because he was born in 1904, well before your time. Because of his substantial contributions to medical science, he was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. All of this is the result of his studies on heart catheterization, a treatment that is still used to treat and diagnose a variety of heart diseases.

Forssman thought you could feed a catheter into a patient's heart by inserting it into an arm vein. Even if that makes sense now, the medical community in 1929 believed him to be either insane or an imbecile. He had to harm himself in order to make his point. To be clear, he had been specifically told not to do this. The operating room nurse Gerda Ditzen was the only other person he managed to smuggle in behind his supervisors' backs. He couldn't even get to the instruments he needed to do the treatment without her assistance.

Ditzen was persuaded by Forssmann that his method was sound. She agreed to be his patient because he persuaded her so effectively. In order to execute the old switcheroo on himself while she was tied and powerless to resist him, he secured her to the operating room table using restraints. He was able to prevent another medical professional from removing the catheter from his arm, and he later x-rayed himself to confirm its effectiveness. Then, after carrying out the procedure on a patient who was near death, publishing the results, and disobeying the law, he was swiftly let go from the hospital where he was employed.