The Life of Nazih Zuhdi: Uncharted Voyage of a Heart

Dr. Nazih Zuhdi was born on May 19, 1925, in Beirut, Lebanon, the son of a Syrian ophthalmologist, Omar Zuhdi, and a petite Turkish lady, Lutfiye Rodan Zuhdi. Nazih Zuhdi?s footsteps have taken him from the sands of civilization?s oldest inhabited cities to the red clay of Oklahoma, one of the newest states in America. Amidst the bustle of New York City and the plains of Minnesota, he was a trainee and eyewitness to Clarence Dennis? earliest heart-lung machines and the pioneering surgical techniques of C. Walton Lillehei. However, it was in Oklahoma City that he excelled scientifically and professionally in the medical world, personally in his family life, and spiritually in his faith. This is his home. The most exciting medical adventure story of the last half-century has been the opening of the human heart. Nazih Zuhdi?s interlocking principles for total intentional hemodilution opened the gateway to life itself on February 25, 1960, at Oklahoma City?s Mercy Hospital. The results changed the landscape to benefit uncounted millions and paved the road to countless centers in every part of the world where the path of open-heart surgery and transplantation could not have gone before. Then in 1963, Zuhdi and Navy Commander Clark Ritchie concentrated and developed an artificial bypass heart, a precursor of the artificial bypass hearts used today. Beginning in 1970 at Baptist Hospital in Oklahoma City, he promulgated the first stabilized glutaraldehyde porcine valve for both aortic and mitral replacements. By 1985 Zuhdi had performed Oklahoma?s first heart transplant at Baptist Hospital, currently Integis Baptist Medical Center. He followed by orchestrating the complete interdisciplinary Nazih Zuhdi Ttransplant Iinstitute. This is the story of both the man and the medical miracles that have been his lifework.