Norman Edward Shumway, MD, was born on 9 February 1923, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and died on 10 February 2006, from metastatic squamous cell carcinoma—one day after his 83rd birthday. He was educated in the public schools in Kalamazoo and entered the University of Michigan intending to pursue law. In 1943, he was drafted into the Army, where an aptitude test revealed that he would be suited to a medical or dental career. He chose the former and subsequently enrolled at Baylor University for premedical studies. After 3 years, he transferred to Vanderbilt University, graduating in 1949 with a Doctor of Medicine degree. He then continued surgical training at the University of Minnesota, where he pursued his interest in cardiovascular research under Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, who gained early fame in open heart surgery by using the technique for cardiopulmonary bypass known as cross-circulation. While at Minnesota, Shumway showed an early interest in applying induced hypothermia to protect myocardial and other vital body tissue during temporary ischemia. He also performed experiments in the animal laboratory using the pulmonary valve as an autograft for treatment of aortic regurgitation—a technique later developed and known as the Ross procedure.
Together with his colleague Richard Lower, Shumway did extensive and pioneering work in cardiac transplantation. He developed a simplified transplant technique in dogs, in which the atria of the donor's heart are opened and then sutured to the atria of the recipient's heart. Among those witnessing these experiments was Christiaan Barnard, also a research fellow at Minnesota. Interestingly, the first successful clinical cardiac transplantation was performed by Barnard in Capetown, South Africa, in December 1967.
A month later, Shumway performed the first cardiac transplant in the United States. He had planned to do as many as 10 cases before making a formal report, but the news media intervened, and Shumway became somewhat reluctantly a celebrity, as had Barnard. Others, including ourselves, also started performing transplants, initially with success; however, limited long-term survival, due to tissue rejection and problems with the immunosuppressive methodology, caused most surgeons to declare a moratorium on heart transplantation. Shumway persisted as the only investigator in the field until the early 1980s, when the remarkably effective immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine became available. Cardiac transplantation is now performed throughout the world.
At Stanford University, Shumway initiated clinical and research programs in which he trained many aspiring cardiovascular surgeons, including Richard Lower, Edward Stinson, Vaughn Starnes, William Frist (now a U.S. senator), and Bruce Reitz, who performed the earliest experiments with total heart-lung transplants in primates. Later, in 1981, Reitz and Shumway's colleagues at Stanford reported the first clinical application of heart-lung transplantation.
Shumway was known as an innovator and teacher who inspired young associates to think of possible advances and to pursue their ideas in the laboratory. He stimulated and encouraged his pupils to improve their technical skills and prided himself on being the best “first assistant” in surgery. He was admired and well-liked by his students.
Throughout his career, Shumway deserved and received many honors. Among them was the René Leriche Prize of the International Surgical Society, which he received in 1971 for the most important contribution in cardiovascular surgery that year. He received many honorary degrees from universities and medals from foreign countries. Honorary fellowships followed from the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in Glasgow, England, Edinburgh, and Ireland. He was elected president of the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons in 1986 and received the prestigious Medallion for Scientific Achievement from the American Surgical Association in 1993. In 1972, Shum way became the first recipient of our Texas Heart Institute Medal for outstanding contribution to science related to cardiovascular disease. One of Shumway's more recent honors was Lister Medalist, received from the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1994. Other awards are too numerous to mention. He retired from clinical surgery in 1993 but continued to attend hospital functions.
In his later years, one of Shumway's favorite societies was the Senior Cardiovascular Surgical Society, which consisted of 12 mostly illustrious members who enjoyed golf and good fellowship. I have many fond memories of being with Norman on these and many other occasions. I enjoyed especially his sometimes acerbic wit and critical opinions of personalities and events. We maintained a close and personal friendship throughout his medical career.
Norman has 4 children: a son, Michael; and 3 daughters, Sara, Amy, and Lisa. Sara became an outstanding cardiac surgeon and is on the faculty of the University of Minnesota, where she directs their cardiopulmonary transplant program. His former wife, Mary Lou, also survives him.
Denton A. Cooley MD
President and Surgeon-in-Chief, Texas Heart Institute
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