Russell M. Nelson Heals Hearts

I met a woman who has worked in an operating room with many cardiovascular surgeons. When I asked if she ever worked with the legendary Russell M. Nelson she said he was her favorite.

I asked what was unique about him? She said, "He never lost his temper or swore." She asked him about that. She said, "He told me that early on in his career he made a vow never to show any sign of discouragement or lack of self control since he was the leader of the operation and it was about the patient and not about himself."

Photo: Russell M. Nelson poses in dress uniform during military service. He served as first lieutenant in Army Medical Corps from 1951-53.

Who is this remarkable man?

Before he became an internationally renowned surgeon he was a medical student from Utah busy working in 1951 with a small team of people at the University of Minnesota Hospital on a device that would revolutionize open heart surgery.

After years of trial and error this unique team would successfully create the first heart lung machine making it possible to circulate and oxygenate blood for the body while bypassing the heart and lungs. Because of this technology millions of lives would be saved. I am one of those many.

Nelson would work as a surgeon during the Korean War, studying at Harvard, and finally earning his Phd from the University of Minnesota.

This gifted young man was encouraged by many of his colleagues and professors to stay back East and work. They said there was nothing back in Utah for him and he was too talented as a heart surgeon to work in the middle of nowhere.

Photo: Original Heart Lung Machine on Display in London

In 1955 Dr. Nelson decided he would go home because of his unique heritage and faith. His family descended from Mormon pioneers who were forced out of Missouri in 1856 because Mormon converts in those days gathered into one area forming a strong community. They had become too strong politically and preached anti-slavery prior to the Civil War among other controversial issues. Above all, and outside of the passion for his faith, Utah was his home.

Nelson returned to Salt Lake City in 1955 and was initially on the academic staff of the College of Medicine at the University of Utah, where in November of that year. While working as an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Utah Medical School, Elder Nelson worked at the Salt Lake County Hospital and built his own twin pump heart-lung machine. His research helped Utah to become the third state in the nation where open heart surgery was performed.

In March 1956, Nelson performed the first successful pediatric cardiac operation at the Salt Lake County Hospital, a total repair of tetralogy of Fallot in a four-year-old girl. In 1959, he joined the staff of the Salt Lake Clinic, became associated with the LDS Hospital, and continued to make major contributions to the development of the thoracic specialty both in the clinical sciences and as the second director of the residency program.

Nelson's surgical volume was sufficiently large that it was a critical component of the residents' experience. He was an innovative and facile surgeon responsible for many improvements in cardiac operations. He also established a research laboratory at LDS Hospital.

Learn More about this remarkable man in his biography. A wonderful history of faith and medicine.

By the late 1960s, Nelson's experience with artificial aortic valve implantation was such that he was able to report a large series of patients with an exceptionally low operative mortality.

I believe that today people like me are living longer because of this remarkable man who chose to return home.

His colleague Conrad Jensen operated on me in 1973. Dr. Nelson brought Dr. Jensen to Utah as a partner and later another partner Donald Doty who did my difficult heart surgeries in my teenage years.

I love that I can trace my good health back to a man devoted to his faith, family, and love for medicine.

This wonderful doctor, internationally well respected, who physically healed many hearts left his practice decades ago after receiving a call from President Spencer W. Kimball, then the presiding authority in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. President Kimball asked Doctor Nelson to be one of the Twelve apostles in the Mormon faith with the full-time responsibility of spiritually healing hearts according to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Thank you Elder Russell M. Nelson for blessing my life. Watch Elder Nelson describe the Human Heart in this brief video.