Harold D. Kletschka August 26, 1924 - March 6, 2004 Born in 1924, Dr. Kletschka grew up in the small northern town of Lake Hubert, near Brainerd, Minnesota. The second child of Herb and Emma Kletschka, Harold won high academic marks at Brainerd High School and entered the University of Minnesota Medical School, finishing in 1947. He completed his internship at Kings County Hospital at Brooklyn, New York, and surgical residencies at the University of Michigan and the Downstate Medical Center in New York City. The Air Force drafted him and moved him to the San Francisco area in the mid-1950s. There he first noticed the potential of using a centrifugal pump in an artificial heart device. Also, he founded the Air Force Cardiovascular Research Center, later transferred to the U.S.A.F. Willford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Wanting to devote his skills to the invention of the world's most perfect artificial heart, Dr. Kletschka accepted a faculty position at the Upstate Medical Center at Syracuse, New York. While there, he worked as a surgeon at the Syracuse Veterans' Administration Hospital. Eventually, he became board certified as a general, thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon. In 1968, he and his engineering partner, Edson Rafferty, tested their first fully functional Kletschka-Rafferty Artificial Heart. By 1970, after they had both transferred to Houston where he worked at the V.A. hospital, spending most of his time developing the artificial heart. In 1970, Dr. Kletschka and Mr. Rafferty, along with others, started a company named Bio-Medicus®, Inc., for the purposes of bringing the artificial heart to market. During the early days of the company, Dr. Kletschka continued to work as a surgeon at the Montgomery, Alabama V.A. hospital. Also, during the early days of the formation of the company, Dr. Kletschka earned a law degree from Blackstone Law School, and in 1973, the Air Force named him the worldwide symbolic graduate of his Air War College class. He eventually retired from the Air Force Reserve as a Colonel. In 1975, Dr. Kletschka performed a human clinical trial on the pump portion of the artificial heart, using it as a heart assist pump. The highly successful test resulted in immediate worldwide orders for the Bio-Pump®. In 1977, a stockholder group seized control of Bio-Medicus®, Inc., and ousted Dr. Kletschka and Mr. Rafferty. In 1989, Dr. Kletschka won a 12-year legal battle against the stockholders, and was able to move on with his work and life. During those 12 years, he worked as a consultant at Brainerd State Hospital, and continued doing medical research. In 1989, after the company settled with Dr. Kletschka, Medtronic bought Bio-Medicus®, Inc. The Bio-Pump® is the largest selling heart assist pump in the world, used in some 50% of all open heart procedures. His stock holdings and damages from his legal settlement awarded provided Dr. Kletschka with the ability to continue his research both on the artificial heart and on a new angioplasty device. Dr. Kletschka has been keenly interested and involved with political and cultural developments in America and around the world. But his special concern has been protecting innocent babies from abortion. His preoccupation with this issue drove him to a 20-year study of theology, physiology and law as it concerned abortion. That study resulted in "A Treatise on Human Life." The story of the development of this treatise is found at the introduction. Dr. Kletschka suffered a stroke on February 28, 2004 and passed away on March 6, 2004, at North Memorial Hospital, Golden Valley, Minnesota. To contact Dr. Harold D. Kletschka's family, or for further information about this book or his life's work, send email to Alethos Press LLC. Copyright: Harold D. Kletschka PO Box 600160 ~ St. Paul, MN ~ 55106 Email webmaster

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