ABSTRACT
On September 4th, 2017 it will be 60 years since Dr. Helmut Jeager performed the first successful open-heart surgery in Chile and South America on a patient with a congenital heart defect. He performed the closure of an ostium secundum type inter atrial septal defect, using The Wall - Lillehei extracor-poreal circuit. Although in most cases this type of surgery has been replaced by closure through inter-ventional catheterism, at that time the operation had big medical and news media impact. For children born with a congenital heart defect, cardiac surgery meant a before and after. Before, children less than one-year old had a limited survival rate, about 30% at one year. Now, thanks to cardiac surgery the survival is close to 95% and in most cases life expectancy is normal or with only few limitations.