2024-D Maine Innovation Dollar Brilliant Uncirculated

Product Description

The newest 2024 Innovation dollar representing Maine honors Dr. Bernard Lown and his invention of the lifesaving direct current defibrillator.

Dr. Bernard Lown was a Lithuanian-American cardiologist who was a pioneer in the research of sudden cardiac death. In 1962, Dr. Lown, in cooperation with engineer Baruch Berkovitz, developed a new method for correcting dangerously abnormal heart rhythms, called fibrillations. The device used direct current precisely timed to certain points in the heartbeat's cycle.

Lown administered jolts through the chest walls of 11 patients, some near death, and restored normal heartbeats to all. By 1964, thousands of hospitals were equipped with the device which became a lifesaving technique used worldwide.

It led to new cardiac resuscitation techniques and technological developments, including modern pacemakers and defibrillators implanted in the chests of heart patients that automatically detect and correct abnormal rhythms.