Werner_Forssmann--Hans_Adolf_Krebs

Werner Theodor Otto Forßmann (Forssmann in English; German pronunciation: [ˈvɛʁnɐ ˈfɔʁsˌman] ; 29 August 1904 – 1 June 1979) was a German researcher and physician from Germany who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Medicine (with Andre Frederic Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards) for developing a procedure that allowed cardiac catheterization. In 1929, he put himself under local anesthesia and inserted a catheter into a vein of his arm. Not knowing if the catheter might pierce a vein, he put his life at risk. Forssmann was nevertheless successful; he safely passed the catheter into his heart.