TIL the man who voiced Tigger from “Winnie the Pooh” was the first to invent an artificial heart
via reddit.com
Oh geez, this isn’t half the story. Buckle up kids. This is wild.
The inventor is Paul Winchell, who started off doing Dummy shows on the radio. His star rises, TV happens, and he enters a dancing contest where he WON AGAINST RICARDO MONTALBALN.
Mr. Montalbaln was SO IMPRESSED that he invited Paul Winchell to dinner. At dinner he was seated next to A PRE FAME DR HEIMLICH.
YES. OF THE HEIMLICH MANEUVER.
They hit it off and somehow Paul Winchell is invited to watch Heimlich and others do operations.
AGAIN, HE’S A VENTRILOQUIST AND A HOST OF THINGS. I DON’T KNOW HOW HE WON THE DANCE CONTEST THAT STARTED THIS THING.
Which leads to the following conversation.
Winchell: Hey, what if someone invented an artificial heart so someone can get blood pumped during surgery.
Heimlich: That would be a swell idea.
W: So, uh, as I make my own dummies, a heart can’t be too different.
H: I guess? It’s worth a shot.
W: And as I don’t know anything about, well, how hearts work. Can you answer any questions and help out to make sure it’s all correct?
H: I’d be delighted!
Cue a LONG time working on this. And while Winchell EVENTUALLY gets it patent-worthy (at Hemlich’s suggestion) it can’t actually, well, work. The battery it takes to run it was too large and burnt out easily.
But all modern artifical hearts are based on that design.
Again, this started when a VENTRILOQUIST BEAT AN ACCOMPLISHED DANCER IN A DANCE CONTEST.
(Paul Winchell has several other patents including: a disposable razor, a plasma defroster, and did a lot of work for the Leukemia Foundation and the red cross. He also did attempt to get a medical degree later and did some medical hypnosis)
This man had a wild life.
That’s just the wonderful thing about Tiggers