Word: debakey
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...pump did what we thought it would do," said Surgeon Michael E. DeBakey. "The patient's heart was already showing improvement. With this important encouragement, we look forward to using the device again in the near future...
DeRudder had not regained consciousness after the long, dramatic operation. The post-mortem examination showed why. Part of a clot, found in the left auricle during surgery, had evidently broken away, traveled to DeRudder's brain, and blocked a major cerebral artery. Surgeon DeBakey was buoyed by the fact that the pump's own firm but gentle action had created no clotting problems, though DeRudder had had them earlier...
When the half-heart pump is next used, which may be within a couple of weeks, DeBakey's mechanical-minded research assistant, Surgeon William Aker, will have made some minor modifications. In DeRudder's case, the two main inflow and outflow tubes, stitched into his left auricle and aorta, were led to a plastic frame, 1½ in. thick, implanted in the chest wall. The hemispherical pump was attached externally to this. The connecting tips of the frame for the pump will be modified to make the surgery simpler and therefore quicker...
...Patient DeRudder's condition so grave as to justify the admitted risk? It took Dr. DeBakey, with three assisting surgeons, until 10:14 to decide that the answer was yes. Swiftly Dr. DeBakey took one of the two plastic tubes attached to the pump device and stitched it into the hole in the left auricle. Then he took the other tube and sewed it into a hole in the side of the aorta. At DeRudder's chest wall, the round plaque holding these tubes, together with smaller tubes for priming and flushing with saline solution, was attached...
...cardiologists hoped, the ventricle would be spared much of the strain under which it had labored. While it would not literally rest, it would have a chance to regain muscle tone and strength. That might take as long as three weeks. If everything worked out as hoped, Dr. DeBakey planned to detach the pump from his patient's chest but leave the ¾-in plastic tubes implanted. They might come in handy later. At week's end DeRudder's condition had the doctors baffled. The pump was working extremely well, but he remained in a coma...