Working with engineers, Mirowski and Mower designed circuitry to detect ventricular fibrillation and trigger the charging of a capacitor by a battery. Mirowski wondered whether the discharge of a simple capacitor, which stores charge, might be sufficient to terminate fibrillation if the capacitor was in direct contact with the heart. However, he believed that with external defibrillation most of this energy was wastefully dissipated in the tissues around the heart. Mirowski knew that a strong electrical shock was needed to terminate ventricular fibrillation. Mirowski paired up with Morton Mower, another cardiologist, and together they created a blueprint for the device. His project, conceived in Israel after Heller’s death, was to build an implantable defibrillator. As chief of the new CCU at Sinai Hospital, he negotiated time to pursue his own work in the basement of the hospital’s research building. Like so many traumatized by sudden cardiac death, it became his lifelong obsession. In 1966, when he was already a practicing cardiologist, he experienced a life-changing tragedy when his close friend and mentor, Harry Heller, died of ventricular tachycardia, a malignant rhythm that is often a precursor of ventricular fibrillation.

Sandeep Jauhar’s latest book, “My Father’s Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s.”Īfter the war, he did his medical training in France.

Heart by sandeep jauhar