1923-

Argentinean Surgeon

In 1967 René Favaloro performed the first successful, fully documented coronary bypass, substituting a vein from the patient's leg for a damaged artery in the heart. The procedure had been attempted unsuccessfully before, and successfully in an emergency situation, but Favaloro's was the first planned bypass, complete with supporting literature, which he published in 1968. Favaloro also established one of Latin America's leading medical training facilities, the Institute of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Favaloro was born in 1923 in La Plata, Argentina. His father, Juan Favaloro, was a carpenter, and his mother, Ida Raffaeli Favaloro, a dressmaker. Favaloro attended the National College and Medical School at the University of La Plata, from which he received his M.D. degree in 1949. He underwent his internship and residency at the Instituto General San Martin in La Plata, where he also...