Few of the great stories of medicine are as palpably dramatic as the advent of open heart surgery, yet, until now, no one has brought to life all of the thrilling specifics of this triumph. G. Wayne Miller has dramatically and meticulously reconstructed the amazing true story of how a group of renegade Minnesota surgeons, led by Dr. Walt Lillehei, accomplished what many experts considered to be an impossible feat: he opened the heart, repaired fatal defects, and made the miraculous routine. Drawing on archival research and exclusive interviews with Lillehei and legendary pioneers such as Michael DeBakey and Christian Barnard, Miller takes readers into the lives of these brave doctors and patients as they risked reputations and lives to revolutionize health care.