Thomas Fogarty
Encyclopedia
Thomas Fogarty is a professor of surgery at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

. He is also an inventor of medical devices and a vintner.

Background

Fogarty was born in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

 in 1934. His father died when young Fogarty was 8 (or 6 - sources vary), leaving him to do home repairs for his mother. He also was a Golden Gloves
Golden Gloves
The Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the United States. The Golden Gloves is often the term used to refer to the National Golden Gloves competition, but it also can represent several other amateur tournaments, including regional golden gloves...

 boxing champion with a professional boxing record of 1-0. Fogarty re-invented a centrifugal clutch
Centrifugal clutch
A centrifugal clutch is a clutch that uses centrifugal force to connect two concentric shafts, with the driving shaft nested inside the driven shaft....

 as a teenager.

While he was a scrub technician at a Cincinnati hospital, Fogarty started working on what is now known as the embolectomy balloon catheter
Balloon catheter
A balloon catheter is a type of "soft" catheter with an inflatable "balloon" at its tip which is used during a catheterization procedure to enlarge a narrow opening or passage within the body...

, by altering a surgical glove using techniques learned from fly-fishing. The catheter was first used successfully while he was a medical resident.

In 1969, Fogarty began teaching surgery at Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford University Medical Center represents the Stanford Hospital and the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and is located at 300 Pasteur Drive in Stanford, California. Stanford Hospital provides both general acute care services and tertiary medical care for patients locally, nationally and...

. He is currently a professor of surgery there and performs both cardiac and peripheral vascular surgery. He was the president of the hospital from 1977 to 1979. He has founded or co-founded over 33 companies in the medical field. He also founded Three Arch Partners, a medical device venture capital firm. In 2000, Dr. Fogarty also established the Fogarty Medical Foundation, through which he has donated over $250,000 to non-profit health research.

In 2000 he won the Lemelson-MIT Prize
Lemelson-MIT Prize
The Lemelson Foundation awards several prizes yearly to inventors in United States. The largest is the Lemelson-MIT Prize which was endowed in 1994 by Jerome H. Lemelson, and is administered through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

 for Invention and Innovation. He is named on over 100 patents for surgical instruments and is an inductee in the National Inventors Hall of Fame
National Inventors Hall of Fame
The National Inventors Hall of Fame is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recognizing, honoring and encouraging invention and creativity through the administration of its programs. The Hall of Fame honors the men and women responsible for the great technological advances that make human,...

. Fogarty was a member of the surgical team under Dr. Norman Shumway
Norman Shumway
Norman Edward Shumway was a pioneer of heart surgery at Stanford University.-Early life:Shumway was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan...

 that performed the first heart transplant in the United States.

Fogarty also owns and operates Fogarty Research & Development, and Thomas Fogarty Winery. The latter produces around 15,000 cases of wine annually.

Sources

  • http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0906798.html
  • http://www.fogartywinery.com/
  • http://www.insidebayarea.com/livinghere/ci_3856588
  • http://www.inhealth.org/MediaCenter/20060718_Fogarty_Gift_Press_Release_FINAL2(1).doc
  • http://www.almanacnews.com/story.php?story_id=2515
  • http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2004/3/2004_3_60.shtml
  • http://www.bacchusvascular.com
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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