Word: arteriosus
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Ironically, two more of nature's mistakes kept Betty going. There were two small holes in the septum (wall) between the two upper chambers of her heart, allowing partly oxygenated blood to pass through. And the ductus arteriosus, which supplies a normal and necessary connection between aorta and pulmonary artery during a baby's life in the womb, did not close as it should have after Betty's birth. This also helped to make partly oxygenated blood available to her faltering circulation...
...just a matter of not making any mistakes." It was also a 91-hour marathon for him and his three assistant surgeons. With the heart exposed (see diagram), Dr. Gerbode stripped away part of its outer sac (pericardium) for later use. Next he sewed up the ductus arteriosus where it joined the pulmonary artery. Then, with his patient connected to the heart-lung pump, he set its heat-exchanger to chill Mrs. Vanella's blood to 68° F., to reduce the brain's oxygen demands...
...simpler than open-heart surgery is closure of a patent ductus arteriosus, the shunt that connects the aorta with the pulmonary artery in unborn infants. Normally, the duct closes automatically soon after birth. When it does not, the situation can be remedied either by tying the vessel shut or by cutting it and closing the ends. In major medical centers, mortality from these operations is near zero. But 777 hospitals offer to do them, and 232 hospitals have admitted a death rate of 3.6% from the first type of operation and 9.6% from the second...
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