Word: nitrogen
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...piece of the skull, then inserts a three-in-one tube, only 2 mm. (less than 1½ in.) in diameter. The tube slips painlessly through the insensitive brain to the deep-lying thalamus. The tube's outer layer is a vacuum insulator; the innermost bore carries liquid nitrogen supplied at -196° C.; the middle layer is for warmed and gaseous nitrogen to escape...
When the X rays show that the tip of the tube is in the thalamus, Dr. Cooper lets in enough liquid nitrogen to drop the tip temperature to zero or -10° C. This knocks out the nerves, but does not destroy them. He asks the patient to raise an arm, or leg, or both: if the patient has full control of his limbs, with no tremor remaining, the tip is in the right place...
Then Dr. Cooper admits more liquid nitrogen, to drop the tip temperature to -40° or -50°. In less than five minutes, this rapid freezing kills the offending, misfiring nerve cells. If the freezing extends a bit too far and the patient becomes unable to move his arm satisfactorily, Dr. Cooper has 30 seconds in which to correct the error and rewarm the thalamus. Most patients can be out of bed the same day and out of the hospital within a week...
...that nitrogen injection kits are being manufactured, other neurosurgeons, still skeptical, will try to duplicate Dr. Cooper's results. Awaiting the benefits of his bold pioneering are at least 300,000 U.S. victims of Parkinsonism, a lifelong affliction, of which doctors say: "Patients don't die of this disease-they die with...
...1950s, Estes had gone into business as a distributor of anhydrous ammonia, a cheap, efficient nitrogen fertilizer widely used in large-scale farming. Indeed, the stuff has become as necessary as water to the farm economy of West Texas. Estes got way behind in his anhydrous ammonia bills from Commercial Solvents, and by 1958 he owed the firm some $550,000. He went to New York and sold officers of the firm on a complex deal: under the agreement, Commercial...