Few people would go to the extreme of using their own body to prove a point, but that is exactly what Dr. Werner Forssmann (1904-1979) did when he experimented on himself to prove that a catheter could be introduced into a human heart without resulting in damage or death to the patient.

Werner Theodor Otto Forssmann was born in Berlin, Germany on August 29, 1904 to Julius and Emmy (Hindenberg) Forssmann. His father, a barrister, served as a captain in the army during World War I, where he was killed in 1916. Forssmann's education began at the Askanische Gymnasium, a secondary grammar school in Berlin. He was confirmed on March 14, 1919 at the Evangelical Church in Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche in Berlin. In 1922 Forssmann continued his education at the University of Berlin where he studied medicine. He passed his medical examinations and, in 1925, began a two-year internship in Berlin, passing the state examination in January...