“The Big One” and Dr. John Kirklin Dr. John Kirklin (1917 to 2004) was admired by many. As a young open-heart surgeon focused on the problem at hand, blue babies, he took over the first heart lung machine. IBM purchased it from Dr. John Gibbons, who developed it based on his original concept. Dr. Kirklin was able to improve its design and used it to gain more time inside the heart of his dogs in the research lab. In October 1955, Dr. Kirklin, reported his series of eight blue baby patients undergoing intracardiac repairs with 50…
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Profound Connection
An unintentional poke solidified my long-standing admiration of my uncle Ralph into a profound connection. Asking him the same question, “how did you do this work?” had over the years led to many divertive but insightful and educational conversations with my uncle. During these eleven years, he occasionally told me, “You learn to not talk.” These conversations, general surgeon to pioneering open heart surgeon, whetted my desire to know more and ask him my question again. That day in the fall of 2006, my uncle Ralph was irritated by my attempt to nominate him for an…
Why I cry when blue babies are the topic.
Well to start, what is a blue baby?In talking with folks, the answers to this question were wide in range. Circulation was not so good for these babies. At birth, babies are a kind of blue color until they start to cry. The blue babies did not survive too long. For some, these words, blue baby, had little to no meaning. People sometimes lose babies, unexpectedly, from things such as sudden infant death. Having never seen a blue baby, and not knowing anyone who had or lost a blue baby, most were happy they had healthy…
Decades Ahead – Part 2
In the care and treatment of the heart, a nihilistic approach, do not touch, let alone plan, andperform an operation was founded in the lack of any chance of helping heart patients over themillennia. Starting slowly with looking at the anatomic defects upon death of a heart patient in the mid1600’s and gaining momentum with shunt procedures. The most notable shunt procedure emergingfrom the research labs to successful surgeries for some of the blue babies in 1944 was the Blalock-Taussig-Thomas shunt. The surgical shunt procedures, did not require entering the heart’s fourchambers, and they helped the…
Decades Ahead: Part 1
Decades Ahead: How did Spokane, Washington become decades ahead in the care and research of the heart, most notable in 1980? Well, notable in 1980 are two enduring, scientific events that were accepted globally, both from Spokane, Washington. First, the research and publication of the work definitively revealing what happens to cause a heart attack, a total occlusion of one or more coronary arteries. Second, the research and presentation of the work definitively revealing the treatment of a heart attack, acute coronary revascularization/ACR, with the research paper publication following in 1981. --DeWood MA, Spores J, Notske…