Dr. Bernard Lown was a Lithuanian-American cardiologist who put his heart into saving lives. He immigrated to the United States in 1935 to escape Nazi persecution for his Jewish heritage, eventually settling in his new hometown of Lewiston, Maine. Lown would go on to study medicine and invent the Direct Current Defibrillator, a lifesaving device that uses direct electrical current in time with the heartbeat’s cycle to correct abnormal rhythms thought to be responsible for 40% of fatal heart attacks in the United States. Along with engineer Baruch Berkovitz, Dr. Lown began experimenting with their new device in 1961, testing it on 11 patients, some in critical condition, all of whom were returned to normal heartbeats thanks to Lown’s defibrillator. By 1964, thousands of hospitals were using Dr. Lown’s invention to save countless lives. The Direct Current Defibrillator led to the invention of other crucial cardiac devices, including pacemakers and defibrillator implants, which are used by millions of Americans today.