John Joseph McKeown Jr., 95, surgeon

John Joseph McKeown Jr., 95, of Berwyn, formerly of Wynnewood, a noted thoracic surgeon in Philadelphia, died Saturday, Jan. 24, of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

A Narberth native, Dr. McKeown was a 1938 graduate of West Catholic High School, and St. Joseph's University in 1943. He interrupted his studies in 1942 to serve with the Army Medical Corps during World War II and then resumed them, graduating in 1947 from Thomas Jefferson Medical College.

He served an internship and residency at Jefferson during which he spent two years in the Air Force. He was honorably discharged in 1952 with the rank of captain.

When he returned to Jefferson, Dr. McKeown was part of a surgical team under Dr. John Heysham Gibbon, inventor of the heart-lung machine. The team performed the first open-heart bypass surgery using the device on May 6, 1953. Tests had gone well on dogs, but this was the first time the machine had been tried on humans.

"That day a combination of excitement and nervousness filled the air at Jefferson," Dr. McKeown recalled in an opinion piece published by The Inquirer in May 2013.

The patient was 18-year-old Cecelia Bavolek, a student from Wilkes-Barre. She had a heart defect that needed correction.

The heart-lung machine was roughly the size of a grand piano. It was filled with medicated blood from donors the night before.

Once in the operating room, Bavolek was connected to the heart-lung machine for 45 minutes. For 26 of those minutes, the machine was functioning as her heart and lungs, the doctor wrote.

The operation was a complete success, and Bavolek did well afterward, he reported.

"Technological advances have improved the quality of surgery and outcomes for patients, but no single surgery has been as important as the one done on May 6, 1953, in Philadelphia," Dr. McKeown wrote.

Dr. McKeown was named chief of thoracic surgery at Philadelphia General Hospital in 1959, assistant secretary of the American Board of Surgery from 1955 to 1966, and director of surgical education at Jefferson in 1968. He became chairman of the department of surgery at Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital in 1976.

On Dec. 14, 1970, Dr. McKeown was called to operate on Eagles defensive captain Nate Ramsey, who had been shot once in the chest by an acquaintance while standing on a West Philadelphia corner with his wife. Ramsey survived to play again.

Dr. McKeown also was called in to operate on former Philadelphia Police Officer Thomas J. Gibbons Jr., one of two officers shot by the occupants of a stolen Cadillac the men had stopped on Aug. 30, 1970, at 59th Street and Cedar Avenue in West Philadelphia. Both survived; Gibbons is a retired Inquirer reporter.

"Following my initial emergency surgery at Misericordia Hospital to repair damage from a bullet that had ripped through my [midsection] and right lung, my condition continued to deteriorate. Infection had set in," Gibbons wrote in an e-mail.

Dr. McKeown removed a section of rib to gain access to the infection, and resolved it. "I grew to revere this imposing, kindly man," Gibbons wrote.

Dr. McKeown retired from surgery in 1987 but remained on Jefferson's board of directors until 1996, when he was named honorary clinical professor of surgery. He was a member of many professional organizations, including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the American Medical Association.

In his spare time, he enjoyed watching the Phillies.

Dr. McKeown was married for 46 years to Kathleen Frank McKeown, who died in 2009.

Surviving are daughters Kathy and Carolyn; sons John and Paul; three grandchildren; a sister; and many nieces and nephews.

Services were Friday, Jan. 30.

Donations may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project, 4899 Belfort Rd., Suite 300, Jacksonville, Fla. 32256.