Axel Cappelen

Who is Axel Cappelen?

Axel Cappelen was a Norwegian surgeon. He is credited with performing the first surgery on the heart on the human heart on 4 September 1895 at Rikshospitalet in Kristiania.

The patient needed emergency surgery due to a knife wound. Cappelen accessed the thoracic cavity by cutting through the fourth rib. He repaired the wound of the left ventricle where he has sustained the stab wounds in the left side of his chest. After two days of intensive care, the patient died of coronary occlusion and not because of the repairing of the heart. The wound was found to be satisfactorily closed at the autopsy.