Bernard Lown

Bernard Lown (June 7, 1921 – February 16, 2021) was a Lithuanian-born American cardiologist and anti-nuclear war activist. He was the original developer of the DC defibrillator and the cardioverter, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.  

Career
Lown developed the direct current defibrillator for cardiac resuscitation and the cardioverter for correcting rapid disordered heart rhythms, and introduced a new use for the drug lidocaine to control heartbeat disturbances. Throughout his medical career, Lown focused on two major medical challenges: the problem of sudden cardiac death and the role of psychological stress on the cardiovascular system. His investigations led to many medical break-throughs.  

His work made possible and safe much of modern cardiac surgery, as well as a host of other innovations.

In 1985, Lown accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, an organization he co-founded with Soviet cardiologist Dr. Yevgeny Chazov, who later was Minister Of Health of the USSR.

Personal life
Lown was born to a Jewish[Bernard Lown Interviewed by Peter Tishler http://videocenter.brighamandwomens.org/files/dmfile/Lown_Bernard.pdf], September 2011 family in Utena, Lithuania, the grandson of rabbis.The Catholic Church in World Politics,
By Eric O. Hanson, Princeton University Press, 14 Jul 2014, page 420 He was raised in Lewiston, Maine. Lown studied at the University of Maine and at Johns Hopkins University. He was married to Louise Lown. They had three children.

Lown died at his home in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts from pneumonia caused by congestive heart failure on February 16, 2021 at the age of 99.

References

Other websites

 Dr. Bernard Lown's Official Website
 The Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation 
 A Heart Doctor With an Extra Big Heart
 Prescription for Survival -- interview from the public radio program "Living On Earth"
 The Lost Art of Healing -- interview from the public radio program "Humankind"
 Bernard Lown papers, 1933-2033 (inclusive, 1960-1995 (bulk), HMS c300. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine , Center for the History of Medicine , Harvard Medical School

Category:1921 births
Category:2021 deaths
Category:Deaths from pneumonia
Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure
Category:American activists
Category:American inventors
Category:American physicians
Category:Jewish activists
Category:Jewish American scientists
Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni
Category:Lithuanian Jews
Category:Scientists from Maine
Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States
Category:People from Lewiston, Maine
Category:Nobel Peace Prize winners