Mower, co-inventor of implantable defibrillator, dies at 89

BALTIMORE (AP) — A cardiologist who helped invent an automatic implantable defibrillator that has helped countless heart patients live longer and healthier has died. Dr. Morton Mower was 89 years old when he died last week in Denver. He spent much of his medical career in Baltimore and at Sinai Hospital. The Baltimore Sun reports it was there that he and Dr. Michel Mirowski developed a miniature defibrillator that could be implanted into a patient. The device would correct a patient’s over-rapid or inefficient heartbeat with an electric shock to resume its regular rhythm. It was first used in a human a decade later.