From the August 20, 1908 NYT:

WASHINGTON - News of one of the most remarkable operations ever performed in this city or, possibly, in the United States, which took place at the Emergency Hospital here, when one of the surgeons of that institution succeeded in bringing back to life a 12-year old [African American] boy of Hyattsville, MD., who had died suddenly while undergoing an operation, has just been made public...

The boys abdomen was opened and for seven minutes the doctor massaged the patient's heart with his fingers. Finally, when he was about to give up all hope, the boy took a faint voluntary breath, and for several minutes the heart pulsed gently. Plying the heart with his fingers to stimulate circulation of the blood, the physician, after eighteen minutes, had the heart pulsating normally.

For a day and a half following the operation the boy remained in excellent condition and every hope was held out for his recovery. But the infection of the knee had spread to the left side and affected the glands of the neck. Blood poisoning set in, and despite all further efforts the boy died.

The operation on the heart is regarded by medical students as unique in the annals of medicine. It also opens up a new field in surgery, and means, physicians say, that many persons who expire while under anaesthetics may possibly be revived by such methods.

Within a few months, several eminent physicians of this city will conduct vivisection tests to determine how far the heart massage can be carried. Dogs will be placed under anaesthetics and allowed to succumb, so that physicians may determine how long an interval may elapse when an animal, apparently dead, may be restored by heart massage.

Interesting items from this story? The physician remains nameless, and thus non-famous. There is no threat of a law suit against the surgeon who initiated the heart massage without FDA approval. There is no castigation from the ADA for "cowboy medicine." There is no animal rights group threatening eco-terrorism or other forms of boycott for the pending dog tests.

I have no specific knowledge about heart surgery, but if this was the beginning of a new field that would ultimately yield the pace maker, bypass surgery, and heart transplants, then the spark of innovation on the part of the nameless surgeon would seem to have borne tremendous benefit.