Advances in the field of medical surgery have been dramatic and it´s possible that some philatelists find the subject interesting to collect. My father´s life was extended by many years as a result of two open Heart operations. An amazing coincidence was that the surgeon who carried out the second operation had the same name as my father. He even gave me an impromptu tour of the operating theatre the day before the operation and explained the use of the various tools and instruments laid out awaiting his skilled hands. With this memory in mind I thought I´d dig out some stamps on the subject. Below is a stamp sheet issued by the Republic of Guinea in 1987, commemorating a cardiologists’ congress.

In 1972, to celebrate World Heart Month, Malta released these:

And Greece, in 1981, for the 15th International Cardiovascular Surgery Conference in Athens:

The stamp below commemorates the 50th anniversary of the first open Heart Surgery performed in Lithuania on Oct. 15, 1964, at Vilnius University Hospital.

Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes was a famous New Zealand heart surgeon. In 1962 he became only the second heart surgeon in the world to replace a heart valve. He treated children born with heart defects, so-called “blue babies”. Most infants suffering from heart blood flow problems had little chance of survival until 1965, when Barratt-Boyes devised a method of diverting the blood to its proper course through their hearts. New Zealand recognised his ingenuity by releasing in 1995 the stamp below.

To commemorate 100 years of heart surgery, in 1996 India issued the above stamp.

The stamp top left as you view depicts open heart surgery being carried out on a patient anaesthetised by the use of acupuncture. This set features advances in surgical techniques at the time the stamps were issued by China in 1976.

To commemorate 30 years of heart surgery at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in Dhaka Bangladesh issued this stamp:

Of course there are many more. If this is your topic, happy hunting.

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