San Francisco, CA (WFN) -- This week marks an important event in both medical and balloon history: The 25th anniversary of the invention of the angioplasty.

On September 16, 1977, Swiss physician Dr. Andreas Gruentzig sat in his kitchen and fashioned together a tiny balloon with a catheter using nothing but Krazy Glue.

Dr. Gruentzig then inserted his device into the clogged arteries of a 38-year-old Swiss man and saved his life.

In fact, the patient is still living today.

Sadly, Dr. Gruentzig isn't. He died in a plane crash in 1985 but his technique lives on, and has bypassed bypass surgery as the first method of treating heart patients.

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