The surgeon who pioneered open-heart surgery and led a global faith
In short: Before he was a religious prophet, Russell M. Nelson was a medical pioneer. A member of the research team that developed the first human heart-lung machine, he later became the seventeenth president of the LDS Church, bridging the worlds of advanced cardiothornetic science and global spiritual leadership.
Russell M. Nelson’s professional life was defined by precision and innovation. In 1951, while conducting research at the University of Minnesota under surgeon Clarence Dennis, Nelson contributed to the development of the cardiopulmonary bypass machine. This technology supported the first human open-heart surgery using the device. After completing his Korean War duties with the U.S. Army Medical Corps, Nelson went back to Salt Lake City and constructed a personal heart-lung bypass device. This allowed him to perform the first open-heart surgery west of the Mississippi River at Salt Lake General Hospital.
His surgical career was marked by significant milestones in pediatric and valvular surgery. In 1956, he successfully performed a total repair of tetralogy of Fallot on a four-year-old girl, marking the first successful pediatric cardiac operation at the hospital. He also performed one of the first repairs of tricuspid valve regurgitation in 1960 and later operated on future church president Spencer W. Kimball to replace a damaged aortic valve. By the time he transitioned into full-time church service, he had completed nearly 7,000 operations.
In 1984, Nelson was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a position he held for over three decades. In 2015, he took leadership of the Quorum, later being sustained as the church's seventeenth president in 2018. During his presidency, he oversaw significant policy shifts, such as the 2019 adjustment regarding the baptism of children with same-sex parents. Having reached 101 years of age, Nelson held the record for the longest-lived president of the faith.
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