How a Simple Balloon Changed Vascular Surgery

Thomas Fogarty developed the first balloon embolectomy catheter in the early 1960s, when he was observing patients who lost limbs to arterial clots. Drawing on skills from fly-fishing and makeshift materials, he attached a thin balloon to a catheter and tested the idea until the balloon would pass through a clot and withdraw it safely. The design required precise hand-tying and the right rubber thickness, a combination that reduced the need for large incisions and long operations.

Although manufacturers initially hesitated, Fogarty secured a patent in 1969 and Edwards Lifesciences later manufactured the catheter for wide clinical use. The device became central to vascular surgery and to later catheter-based techniques; today it is used in roughly 300,000 procedures per year and it is estimated to have saved about 20 million limbs and lives since its introduction. His work encouraged further minimally invasive innovations, such as balloon angioplasty and endovascular stent-grafts, which have changed how surgeons treat vascular disease.

Fogarty held more than 190 medical patents and he founded Fogarty Innovation to mentor inventors, a program that continues to coach teams working on new devices. He received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2014, and other honors that marked a career spanning clinical practice, engineering, and entrepreneurship. If future surgeons and engineers build on his methods, they will continue a tradition in which small tools and practical tests can bring major improvement to patient care.

Beyond medicine, he ran a winery in California and he enjoyed fly-fishing and outdoor life, interests that informed his practical approach to design. Colleagues have said that his hands-on experiments and clear focus on the patient guided generations of innovators. His death on December 28, 2025 left a large group of mentees and companies that continue his work.