Word: patiently
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Surgeon William DeVries was working in his office at the University of Utah Medical Center last week when he heard a faint but familiar swooshing sound. He looked up from his desk and was happily surprised to see his most famous patient, Dentist Barney Clark, roll into the room in a wheelchair. With a little assistance from his nurses, the world's first recipient of a permanent artificial heart was enjoying an afternoon outing in the hospital corridors. A few feet behind Clark, and connected to his chest by two tubes, was the source of the noise: the power...
Clark's mental progress, however, has not kept pace with his physical recovery. Though often able to converse with family members and doctors, Clark suffers frequent bouts of confusion. One hospital staff member reports that the patient sometimes thinks that he is still a dentist back in Seattle. Though tests have not detected any brain damage, Clark's confusion probably stems from seizures he suffered one week after the implantation of his artificial heart. Utah doctors have conceded that there may have been an imbalance in the supply of fluids, and salts that Clark received. A proper balance...
...famed Houston heart surgeon. Cooley had earlier likened the bold use of the cumbersome device to "putting John Glenn in a rocket in 1950 and aiming him at the moon." Jarvik feels that his invention has already proved its worth: "We have been able to offer at least one patient who was terminally ill a reasonable level of hope for a good life...
Doctors begin the new procedure by administering a local anesthetic and making an incision no larger than ¼in. Conventional surgery would have required an 8-in. to 10-in. cut. A catheter is inserted near the stone, and, depending on the circumstances, the patient will either be sent home for a week, while his urine drains into a bag, or remain overnight in the hospital. The advantage of waiting a week is that it allows time for tissues around the opening to harden, thus enabling doctors to complete the job using only local anesthesia...
...When the patient returns to the operating room, the surgeon removes the catheter and inserts the nephroscope. Optic fibers in the device provide a clear view of the quarry. The doctor then eases a tiny, basket-like grabbing device through the nephroscope and manipulates it to grasp and remove the stone...