Thomas Fogarty (born February 25, 1934[1]), is a professor of surgery at Stanford University. He is also an inventor of medical devices and a vintner.[2]
Fogarty was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1934. His father died when young Fogarty was 8 (or 6 - sources vary), leaving him to do home repairs for his mother. He also was a Golden Gloves boxing champion with a professional boxing record of 1-0. Fogarty re-invented a centrifugal clutch as a teenager.[3]
While he was a scrub technician at a Cincinnati hospital, Fogarty started working on what is now known as the embolectomy balloon catheter, by altering a surgical glove using techniques learned from fly-fishing. The catheter was first used successfully while he was a medical resident.
In 1969, Fogarty began teaching surgery at Stanford University Medical Center. He is currently a professor of surgery there and performs both cardiac and peripheral vascular surgery.[2] He was the president of the hospital from 1977 to 1979. He has founded or co-founded over 33 companies in the medical field.[4] He also founded Three Arch Partners, a medical device venture capital firm. In 2000, Dr. Fogarty also established the Fogarty Medical Foundation, through which he has donated over $250,000 to non-profit health research.
In 2000 he won the Lemelson-MIT Prize for Invention and Innovation.[5] He is named on over 100 patents for surgical instruments and is an inductee in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.[1] Fogarty was a member of the surgical team under Dr. Norman Shumway that performed the first heart transplant in the United States.
Fogarty also owns and operates Fogarty Research & Development, and Thomas Fogarty Winery. The latter produces around 15,000 cases of wine annually.