Wilfred G Bigelow
Authors: Barbara Kermode-Scott
Journal: BMJ (2005)

​WilfredWilfred G Bigelow, known as “Bill,” introduced the concept and technique of hypothermia that first made open heart surgery possible. He also co-developed the first electronic pacemaker in 1950. In 1956 he was influential in developing the first formal cardiac surgery training programme in Canada.




Figure 1




Dr Bigelow began researching hypothermia in a storage room in the basement of the Banting Institute in Toronto, Canada, shortly after the second world war. He theorised that cooling patients before an operation would reduce the amount of oxygen the body required and slow the circulation, allowing for longer and safer access to the heart.

His peers were sceptical, and his studies investigating how groundhogs hibernated in winter proved disappointing. However, after testing the cooling theory successfully on a dog in 1949, in 1950 Dr Bigelow and his colleague, Dr John Callaghan, presented their results at an American Surgical Association meeting. Three years later, the cooling technique was successfully used during surgery on a human patient.

In 1949, during experimental surgery, he found he was able to restart a dog's heart by stimulating it at regular intervals with a probe. The following year he co-developed the first electronic heart pacemaker with Dr Callaghan and electrical engineer John Hopps.

“Dr Bigelow was a highly skilful surgeon, an imaginative scientist, an inspiring teacher, and a wise administrator,” said long-time friend Dr Robert Salter, emeritus professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Toronto. “He has been without question the most outstanding academic surgeon in Canada in his time. His innovative contributions to cardiac surgery have been of enormous significance.”

Wilfred Gordon Bigelow was born in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, in 1913. His father, also Dr Wilfred Bigelow, founded the first medical clinic in Canada. After qualifying in 1938 at the University of Toronto, Bill Bigelow did surgical residencies at the Toronto General Hospital.

In 1941 he treated a young Canadian for frostbite, and had to amputate the man's gangrenous fingers. Shocked how little was known about frostbite, and encouraged by a professor, he started to research frostbite. It was a pivotal moment in his career and life.

Shortly afterwards, Dr Bigelow began military service as a captain in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. He first served with the field transfusion unit and then worked as a battle surgeon with the 6th Canadian Casualty Clearing Station. In England and northwest Europe, while treating many soldiers with frostbitten limbs, his interest in hypothermia grew stronger.

After the second world war he returned to a surgical residency in Toronto, and then completed graduate training as a research fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. In 1947 he moved back to Canada and became a staff general surgeon at the Toronto General Hospital. He was appointed a research fellow in the University of Toronto's department of surgery in 1950. Dr Bigelow became an assistant professor in 1953, and a full professor in 1970.

In 1984 he published a book about his research, Cold Hearts: The Story of Hypothermia and the Pacemaker in Heart Surgery.In 1990 he published Mysterious Heparin: The Key to Open Heart Surgery.

Bill Bigelow received the Gairdner Foundation International Award for achievement in biomedical research in 1959 and in 1981 he was inducted into the Order of Canada. In 1992 he received the Canadian Medical Association's Frederic Newton Gisborne Starr Award, the highest award the association can bestow on a member. Five years later he was admitted to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

Dr Bigelow was also a former president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Society for Vascular Surgery. He was president of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society from 1970 to 1972, and he headed the division of cardiac surgery at Toronto General Hospital for more than 20 years.

“Dr Bigelow had a genuine curiosity for learning,” said Edmonton paediatric cardiologist Dr Ruth Collins Nakai, presidentelect of the Canadian Medical Association. “He was so enthusiastic about it, he was infective... He would always think outside the box but because he was such a humane and human person he was able to attract young people to want to study with him and to be just as curious... I was always astonished because once he met me, he never forgot me. He would come and say hello and ask how I was doing... I was a lowly resident but he had a memory for people and made them all feel special.”

In 2001 the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences named Dr Bigelow a “living legend.”

Predeceased by his wife, Margaret Ruth Jennings, he leaves a daughter, three sons, and three grandchildren.

Wilfred Gordon (“Bill”) Bigelow, emeritus professor of cardiac surgery University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada (b Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, 1913; q Toronto 1938; BA, MD), died from congestive heart failure on 27 March 2005.