The invention of the balloon-expandable stent

The invention of the balloon-expandable stent

An estimated 2 million stents are implanted into people’s hearts around the world each year – making it one of the key treatments for heart disease.

The treatment was invented by Argentinian doctor Julio Palmaz, who credits a piece of metal being left by a construction worker in his home as inspiration for the structure of the stent.

Collaborating with a US Army cardiologist and getting funding from the owner of a fast-food chain and a pharmaceutical giant; the coronary stent was approved for use in human beings in the 1990s.

Julio Palmaz speaks to Tim O’Callaghan about his invention.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.

(Photo: Julio holding a stent. Credit: Julio Palmaz)

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The UNAbomber

The UNAbomber

On the 10th May 2023, the so-called UNAbomber was found dead in his prison cell.Ted Kaczynski carried out a campaign of attacks against universities and airlines in the USA, over seventeen years. In 1996, he was turned in by his brother David Kaczynski.In 2010, David spoke to Lucy Williamson.(Photo: Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski outside the Federal Courthouse in Sacramento, California. January 1998. Credit: Bob Galbraith/AFP/Getty Images)

3 Apr 20189min

The Invention of Semtex

The Invention of Semtex

The plastic explosive was malleable, odourless and stable. Created in communist Czechoslovakia in the town of Semtin in 1958, it was once the weapon of choice for those seeking to spread terror. Maria Jevstafjeva has been speaking to the brother of Stanislav Brebera, the chemist who invented it.Photo: Two workers display Semtex, a Czech-made industrial and military plastic explosive at Syntesia chemical plant in Semtin, Credit: Lubomir Kotek/AFP/Getty Images

2 Apr 20188min

The Good Friday Agreement

The Good Friday Agreement

In 1998, the political parties in Northern Ireland reached a peace agreement that ended decades of war. But the Good Friday Agreement, as it became known, was only reached after days of frantic last-minute negotiations. In 2012, Louise Hidalgo spoke to Paul Murphy, the junior minister for Northern Ireland at the time.PHOTO: Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern (L) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) pose with the mediator of the agreement, Senator George Mitchell. (AFP/Getty Images)

30 Mars 20188min

Mapping the Ocean's Secrets

Mapping the Ocean's Secrets

The publication of a map of the floor of the Atlantic ocean in 1957 by an American female cartographer, Marie Tharp, helped to change forever the way we view our world. Her discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was eventually taken as evidence of the theory of plate tectonics. Yet her work was initially dismissed as 'girls' talk', her colleague geologist Bill Ryan tells Louise Hidalgo.Picture: Marie Tharp working on a map of the ocean floor at Columbia University in the 1960s. (Credit: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory courtesy of the Marie Tharp estate)

29 Mars 20189min

The 'Oasis of Peace'

The 'Oasis of Peace'

In 1978 a small community called Wahat al-Salam, Neve Shalom, was founded by four families, Jews and Arabs, on a hill-top between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It was a pioneering experiment in peaceful co-existence in the long Middle East conflict. Four decades on, it is now home to more than 60 families. Mike Lanchin travels to the community and speaks to two of its long-standing residents, Nava Sonnenschein and Daoud Boulus about life in this "oasis of peace."(Photo courtesy of Daoud Boulus)

28 Mars 20189min

Sarajevo: Singing for Peace

Sarajevo: Singing for Peace

After the bitter Bosnian war in the 1990's, Catholic Monk, Friar Ivo Markovic, launched a multi-faith choir to bring survivors of the violence together and promote understanding between different ethnic groups. The choir is called "Pontanima", an invented word based on Latin that means, "bridge among souls". Rebecca Kesby spoke to Friar Ivo and saw the choir perform. (PHOTO: Members of the Pontanima Choir of Sarajevo: Courtesy of The Woolf Institute)

27 Mars 201811min

First Women on the London Stock Exchange

First Women on the London Stock Exchange

London's Stock Exchange, one of the world's oldest, welcomed women as members for the first time in March 1973. It meant they could earn much more money, as partners in their firms. It also meant they were finally allowed to cross the famous trading floor. Hilary Pearson told Claire Bowes how she and a handful of other women made their way in a very traditional man's world.Photo: One of the first women to be admitted to the floor of the London Stock exchange, 26th March 1973. (Credit: Arthur Jones/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

26 Mars 20189min

Who Killed Luis Colosio?

Who Killed Luis Colosio?

On 23 March 1994 the presidential candidate for Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, was shot dead in the border town of Tijuana. Luis Donaldo Colosio, who was expected to be the country's next leader, was killed when out campaigning. A sole gunman is still in jail for his murder, but Alfonso Durazo, Colosio's former private secretary, tells Mike Lanchin why he believes the murder was part of a wider political plot.Photo taken from Televisa TV broadcast showing amateur video footage of the moment that Luis Colosio was about to be shot dead during a campaign rally (credit: TELEVISA/AFP/Getty Images)

23 Mars 20189min

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