Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1903-07-03
MASSAGE OF HEART.
New York Doctor Says It NAY Thus Be
Started Again,

New York Doctor Says It Nay Thus Be
Started Again.
The New York Press prints the fol-
lowing:
with a few deft movements of the
fingers. which rhythmically squeeze
the base of the heart of a dying per-
son. DR.. Robert Coleman Kemp, 1O7
East Fifty-seventh street, has made
understandable discovery that a pa
tient can be massaged back to life. as
1t were. He announced this method
OF resuscitation at a meeting of the
New York Academy of Medicine last
night. The medical profession have
implicit confidence in DR.. Kemp's abil-
ity, and all who heard his paper say
the science of restoring circulation and
respiration has been advanced several
stsrs.
"Wbile this method of treatment is
expected to be employed only In ex.
treme cases, some physicians are en-
thusiastic enough about it's possibili
ties to venture the opinion that it will
make the question Of whether man
is dead extremely doubtful.
"Dr. Kemp has been experimenting
along this line for year or more in
the laboratories OF the College OF Ply
sicians and Surgeons. The expert
ments have been made On dogs, and In
many cases have been entirely sue
cessful. An extreme case reported by
DR.. Kemp is that of a dog the heart
of which had stopped beating for about
a quarter of an hour. It. was revived
by the treatment and lived for several
hours after ward.
1.-THE Importance to physicians in
DIR. Kewp's discovery lies in the celer-
ity with which an operation can be
performed. The method is to make q
small incisiOn between the ribs with.
out cutting the bone. The fingers are
then thrust into the opening behind
the heart. A few gentle pressures on
the heart is all that is required. DIR.
Kemp maintains, to revive the ciroula-
tion. In conjunction with this pro
cess in an artificial respiration pro
duced with pump. A tube is attach
ed to the pump and inserted into the
patient throat as far as the wind
pipe. i
"'The massage of the heart starts
the human mechanism. so to speak,
said DIR. Kemp is speaking of bis dis
covery. The other methods restore
the other functions. so that the circu.
latiOn Is restored and the life that was
ebbing away is brought back
physicians say that probably only
one case in great many will require
SO heroic treatment, and then only
as hasty makeshift to resiscitate a
person about to succumb under an
anaesthetic on the operating table. 1t
will also be of use in cases of drown
ing, opium poisoning, suffOcation or
still births.
This method Of resuscitation was
first suggested as far back as 1892 by
DR.. George Rowell In an article in the
British Medical Journal. Heart mas
sage is the name applied by many to
the new treatment.
''Three years ago one of the leading
surgeons of Copenhagen, Denmark,
was treating a man for diphtheria,
The surgeon, in the presence of sew
eral physicians. cut open the chest and
laid bare the heart, which showed no
symptoms of cardiac action. The sur
geon took the still and pulseless heart
in bis hand and began to squeeze it
rhythmically. In half an hour it was
slowly fluttering, and an hour later it
was beating strongly at the rate Of go
to the minute.
"This was about a. m. and the man
lived until the following midnight, dy-
ing then because the wind-pipe was so
obstructed by the throat disease that
air could not be sent to his lungs. A
full report of this operation was made
at the time in the medical journals,
and the operating surgeon said he was
confident the restored heart action
would have met all the requirements
of continuous life had the air tubes
been free"