He introduced the Rashkind balloon atrial septostomy to treat transposition of the great vessels.
Rashkind was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and he attended the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
The balloon is inflated and then pulled back across the PFO, creating a hole in the heart through which oxygenated and deoxygenated blood can mix.
[4] In May of that year, LIFE Magazine profiled Rashkind and described his procedure on a young boy named Bobby.
[4] Describing the medical community's response to the Rashkind procedure, pediatric cardiologist Charles Mullins later said, "The initial response to this report varied between admiration and horror but, in either case, the procedure stirred the imagination of the 'invasive' cardiologists throughout the entire cardiology world and set the stage for all future intracardiac interventional procedures – the true beginning of pediatric and adult interventional cardiology.