William Thornton MustardOCMBE (August 8, 1914 – December 11, 1987) was a Canadianphysician and cardiac surgeon. In 1949, he was one of the first to perform open-heart surgery using a mechanical heart pump and biological lung on a dog at the Banting Institute. He developed two operations named for him: the "Mustard operation" in orthopedics used to help hip use in people with polio and the "Mustard cardiovascular procedure" used to help correct heart problems in "blue babies," which has saved thousands of children worldwide.[1] He was also the first to treat ALCAPA with a left carotid artery end to end anastamosis in 1953.[2]
In 1941, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps where he first served as a First Lieutenant rising to become a Major. During World War II, he pioneered an operation that helped keep a patient's limb with severe artery damage rather than amputating it. In 1944, he performed an operation on a leg of a soldier[4] which would later be recognized with being made a Member of the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire.[5] In 1941, he married Elise Howe. They had seven children.[4] Their son Charles Mustard was convicted of the murder of Barbara Brodkin.Cold case killer to spend rest of life in jail
Career at Sick Kids
After the war, he returned to Toronto and was chief resident at the Hospital for Sick Children for six months. He spent another year at the New York Orthopedic Hospital before being appointed surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children in 1947. He spent a month training with Alfred Blalock in Baltimore. In 1957, he was appointed Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery and retired in 1976.[4]