Robert Berger

Robert Berger (September 26, 1929 – January 1, 2016) was a Hungarian-American surgeon specializing in cardiology and pulmonology. He is known for leading the team of physicians whose patient was the first to survive surgery to implant a partial artificial heart. A Holocaust survivor, Berger is also known for his scholarship on ethics in the medical profession during and after World War II.

Early life and education

Berger was born in 1929 in Debrecen, Hungary. After being forced into hiding during the Holocaust, he eventually crossed the Atlantic and settled in Boston, where he attended Boston Latin School, Harvard University (in Cambridge), and later, the Boston University School of Medicine.

Career Berger played a leading role in numerous pioneering surgical procedures of the heart and lungs. In 1965, he assisted in the first case of a total exchange of blood in a young patient. He also broke ground in the understanding of lung volume reduction surgery, and he helped to develop that procedure.

Starting in 1990, Berger became an outspoken critic of academics citing the scientific experiments conducted on concentration camp prisoners in Nazi Germany. In a study he published that year, Berger argued that, despite numerous citations in the scientific literature, such experiments contained scientific inconsistencies, improper methods, and apparent data falsification.

Berger eventually became director of clinical research in the division of thoracic surgery and interventional pulmonology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.