The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-01-25

WRITTEN o sUNDAY REPUBLIC.
To handle the moving heart OF a living
man as it throbs the life currents in and
out. to repair an injury to it as II it were
torn cloth, seems sheer impossibility.
Yet this is what has been done several
times in St. Louis City Hospital; and. ac-
cordingly. St Louis physicians, perhaps
more than the profession in any of the other
communities of the United States, have
helped advance a daring kind Of surgery
which offers a chance for life when the
most delicate organ of the human body is
wounded.
The description OF three cases in which
the operation has been attempted here,
ments as one of the wonders of science in a
seems to establish such surgical achieve
wonderful scientific age. As far back as
books go, whether they be scientific in char
acter or popular literature, a wound in the
heart has implied instantaneous death.
Though the imaginative novelist often al
most killed his hero with a puncture from
which no mortal would be expected to re-
cover. he never went to the length of tam
pering with the heart. knowing that he
would be open to the laughs of his read
ers.
The belief was general that a pin-prick
to the supposed seat of life meant the end,
quickly and painlessly.
Surgeons now have demonstrated that IT
IS possible to lay the seat of life' open to
4 the glare of daylight. to sew up a wound
in it like a rent in a bag. to put 1t back,
! and for 1t to continue pulsing the blood to
1.-THE tips of the fingers and the ends of the
| toes. just this is done, not often-recoveries
! are below 90 per cent-but every recovery
t1s a death averted, and enough to demon
' strate the marvel.
The first recorded attempts at surgery Of
! this nature took place in 1896. From that
, time until the present, about twenty-five
: nporafiOpS have baan pprformad of which
eight were recoveries. OF these Doctor II.
L. Nietert, superintendent of the st. Louis
! City Hospital. performed two, one OF which
recovered. Doctor Louis Rassieur, assistant
: superintendent, performed the one operation
last Sunday. the outcome OF which will
probably be favorable.
The detail of the procedure In all such
F. operations Is the same. The patient Is OBJ
viously suffering from hemorrhages. Cen
orally, he is almost pulseless.
The bleeding is profuse. Probing shows the
pericardium filled with blood. Death is i'm
minent from loss of blood. and the vital fluid
is discharged in large quantities at each
/ heartbeat.
INJURED PART OF
HEART is EXPOSED.
The surgeon. judging by the position OF
the cut or bullet hole. opens the chest 50
as to expose the heart at the injured place.
The pericardium, or heart covering. is cut.
Then the fountain OF circulation is before
him.
This Is a dramatic moment. The writer
witnessed one of the City Hospital opera
t~ions-that on Philip Gum.
The patient lay upon the glass top or the
operating table. not fully under the infiu-
ence of the anesthetic, as the lower portion
of the heart is nerveless, and. once the I'M
tial incision through the skin is made. the
pain is slight. During this first stage.
chloroform was used, then dispensed with
in order TO allow the patient the fullest vi
tally to resist the shock.
Gum clearly, at times. was in possession
of his senses. Twice he shivered slightly,
eXclaiming:
I'm cold. DOCTOR
Then he talked in a low tone on other
matters. asking what they were doing. and
whether the man who stabbed him had
been arrested.
All the while the physicians stood over
him. clad in immaculate white gowns, their
mouths and nostrils wrapped I'm gauze in
order that their breath might carry no germ
into the CHASTITY open wound.
Doctor Nietert, his assistants, and The
spectators. all physicians save myself,
peered into The depths of his chest. The
cavity, under those conditions, seemed as
big as a cave. The heart seemed like a