There was a time when physicians used to listen to a patient’s heart by placing their ear directly onto the chest.
Late in 1816, while examining an overweight woman suffering complications of the heart, French physician, René Laennec realised that a simple device can aid physicians in avoiding the embarrassment of placing an ear to the chest of a woman and also help them better detect the symptoms of the diseased heart.
That’s when the big medical breakthrough happened.
Rene-Theophile-Hyacinthe Laennec, born in France on this day in 1781, was the man behind the invention of the stethoscope– one of the most recognizable and significant pieces of medical equipment.
So, Google keeping up with its tradition has created a doodle to mark what would have been the 235th birthday of Laennec. The doodle is designed wherein one of the letters ‘O’ shows a pair of human lungs, and two doctors using the first prototype, and a modern version of the stethoscope.
Rene was described as a shy but gifted student who studied medicine under the direction of his uncle, also a physician, in Nantes before serving as a medical cadet in the French Revolution.
Rene Laennec is also considered as ‘the father of clinical auscultation’ and invented several clinical terms that are used till today.
Laennec died of tuberculosis in 1826 at the age of 45.