Word: diethrich
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Dates: during 1983-1983
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...star of the show was Cardiologist Edward Diethrich, 47, the deeply tanned, photogenic director of the Arizona Heart Institute in Phoenix. Among his previous credits: performing triple-bypass surgery on Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater last year. Diethrich's co-star and patient was Bernard Schuler, 62, a retired insurance salesman, who spends his winters in an Arizona trailer park. Schuler, a smoker for 41 years, had suffered a mild heart attack in 1977. A continued buildup of fatty deposits in his coronary arteries made him a prime candidate for a more serious second attack. Schuler's physicians recommended...
...Diethrich, and many other surgeons, performing on-camera was nothing new. His operations had been videotaped for doctors and nurses for nearly a decade. The cardiologist agreed to a request from KAET-TV in Tempe, Ariz., to do a televised operation as part of a month-long health series on the public station. The two-hour segment, picked up by some 100 public TV stations in 33 states, had "a twofold purpose," said KAET Spokeswoman Kathy Banfield: "To alleviate the fears of those who face this surgery" and "to encourage others to give up smoking and other bad habits...
...show it live? Said Diethrich: "There is nothing more beautiful than the human heart. It's alive, and I think it's important to see it live." Worried in part that viewers might see it die, two-thirds of the stations carrying the program delayed the broadcast; most were prepared to slip in another show if the operation failed. Diethrich dismissed these fears as merely "hypothetical." The death rate during bypass surgery...
There are as yet no formal ethical guidelines on TV surgery, but a number of doctors reacted with personal criticism of Diethrich. "This was strictly a publicity stunt," said Tucson Cardiologist Burt Strug. "It degrades the medical profession to the level of used-car salesmen." Observed Harvard Heart Surgeon John Collins: "Until now the performance of an operation had been viewed as a private matter between surgeon and patient. We're sufficiently depersonalized in our society already without showing someone's operation on television...
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