To experiment on himself, a surgeon tricked a nurse.

1929 · 1956 · apart: 27 years

Gerda Ditzen agreed to be the subject, but Werner Forssmann strapped her to the table and threaded the catheter into his own heart instead. It won him a Nobel Prize 27 years later.

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The event

• Forssmann threads a catheter into his own heart1929 · Eberswalde. Forbidden to try the risky procedure, 25-year-old Werner Forssmann did it on himself: he pushed a catheter up a vein in his arm into his heart, then walked to the X-ray room to photograph it. He had to leave the clinic, and in 1956 received the Nobel Prize.

20th century

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