Werner Forssmann

Who was Werner Forssmann?

Werner Theodor Otto Forßmann was a physician from Germany who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Medicine for developing a procedure that allowed for cardiac catheterization. In 1929, he put himself under local anesthetic and inserted a catheter into a vein of his arm. Not knowing when the catheter might pierce a vein, he risked his life and was able to pass the catheter into his heart.