Encyclopedia Of Detroit

Born on January 26, 1902 in Webster Spring, West Virginia, Forest Dewey Dodrill was a pioneer in the use of mechanical heart pumps to assist open-heart surgery. Dodrill received a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University in 1925, and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1930. He served his internship and residency at Detroit’s Harper Hospital and went on to receive a Master of Surgery degree from the University of Michigan in 1942.

On July 3, 1952, 41-year-old Henry Opitek was suffering from shortness of breath due to a defective heart valve, and was admitted into Harper University Hospital in Detroit. Here Dodrill inaugurated the Dodrill-GMR heart machine to perform open heart surgery. The machine operated as an artificial heart machine acting as a temporary substitute for the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart which propels blood into the aorta.

It was among the first instances of patient survival after a heart surgery involving a mechanical heart pump. The Dodrill-GMR machine was developed by a medical engineering team headed by Dr. Dodrill at Harper University Hospital in Detroit with funding from the American Heart Association. It was manufactured by General Motors Research and resembled a 12-cylinder car engine. In 1954, the original Dodrill-GMR was placed in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Institute.

The Forest Dewey Dodrill Award for Excellence was established in 1986 by the American Heart Association to recognize someone who has made a significant contribution to fighting heart disease. Dodrill was a board member of the American Heart Association as well as president of the Michigan Heart Association.

He died on June 28, 1997 in Baltimore.