W. Dudley Johnson

Wenner Dudley Johnson (April 3, 1930 – October 24, 2016) was an American cardiothoracic surgeon who became known as the father of coronary artery bypass surgery. He and a colleague operated on one of the longest-surviving patients in the early days of heart transplants, and he made significant contributions to several other cardiac surgical procedures.

Biography Johnson was born in Madison, Wisconsin. His father, Royce, was an electrical engineer. His mother, Olga, was a home economics teacher who came from a Swedish immigrant family.

When Johnson was a child, his mother taught him to crochet; he also took a sewing class in the seventh grade. Though these skills helped him to become a surgeon, Johnson initially set out to be a family practitioner; he was nearly turned off from surgery because he disliked the arrogance of surgeons. After graduating with an undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois and earning an M.D. at the university's medical school, Johnson became interested in surgery during his internship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.

After being drafted into the United States Navy, Johnson discovered that he was susceptible to seasickness, so he joined the United States Public Health Service. Later, he joined cardiac surgeon Derward Lepley in Milwaukee to work on coronary artery bypass procedures. The same year, Lepley and Johnson performed a heart transplant. The patient lived for nine years after the transplant; at the time, that patient's survival was the longest of any heart transplant patient.