Buckberg, Gerald D.: - Internationally recognized for his groundbreaking achievements in the field of cardiac medicine, Gerald David Buckberg was a Distinguished Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His early landmark discovery of blood cardioplegia has dramatically increased the safety of open heart operations. It is used by over 85% of United States surgeons and by 75% of surgeons worldwide. Dr. Buckberg's teams have developed new treatments for acute myocardial infarction (heart attacks) that restore healthy function and avoid the development of congestive heart failure. He later formed an international team of leading surgeons and cardiologists to successfully restore healthy function to congestive heart failure patients. Further breakthroughs by Dr. Buckberg were made in treating sudden death syndrome (cardiac arrest), avoiding heart muscle damage in blue babies, remedying disorders relating to the septum, and improving pacemaker effectiveness. He also formulated a new structural understanding of why the heart beats normally, and yet fails during disease.