Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-08-01
A REMARKABLE OPERATION
Thirty feet of Silver Wire Used in Sew
 ing Up of Mans Aorta

Nature and silver wire twenty feet long have saved the life of Fred Will Hams at the end of one of the most remarkable operations on record. It was for aneurism of the aorta and was performed upon Williams in the Med ieo-Chirurgical hospital by Dr. James H.. Mann.
 The aorta is the great parent trunk artery through which blood is distrib- uted from the heart to the smaller ar teries which run to all parts of the body. An aneurism is thickening of the walls of a blood vessel. It arises frequently as consequence of rheu- matism and figures largely as a cause of death in the vital statistics of every city. The usual treatment for aneur- ism is the removal of the affected DOT tion of the blood vessel and the tying of the free ends of the artery. When this has been done compensatory cir. eulation is set up by the blood vessels near the one that has been removed, and no serious results follow.
 
 aorta, however, such an operation is i'm possible. No artery or series of arteries can do the work of this great blood canal. The only thing to be done in such case is to strengthen the weak ened artery wall and let nature do the rest.
 Williams, who is 39 years old and a man of immense vitality, several months ago noticed swelling on his breast and went to a hospital for treatment The young resident surgeon looked at it critically and said it was boil. He applied local anaesthetie and prepared to lance the lump.
 "Hold on therel" cried Williams, ''I don t want any operation yet. /"
 It was lucky he stayed the young phy- sician s hand. Had he not done so, it seems certain death would have resulted almost immediately.
 The sufferer went to the Medico- Chi rurgieal hospital. After several days of preparation he was placed upon the operating table without having been etherized. A hollow needle was plunged into the aorta, and through this the silver wire was fed from a spool. The wire was about as thick as No. 60 cot ton thread. There was little pain and Williams aided the surgeon by his stoic- ism.
 "Go as far as you like, doctor," he said, as the operation was begun. The blood pressure had been reduced to the minimum by long stay in bed and by a starvation diet. As the wire was fed into the great blood vessel it coiled itself closely in the form of cylinder which fitted exactly the inner surface of the affected part. Then the needle was withdrawn and the little wound made by it was dressed.
 The process that was then set up in the weakened part was this The blood clotted over the wires and "organized ," a new wall, strengthening that which had been weakened by the rheumatic work. The efficacy of this "organiza- tion" depends upon the general con ditions of the patient and the quality of his blood.
 The operation upon Williams was per formed two months ago. Last week he came into the hospital with blood trick ling from pin-point hole in his breast. Again he was placed upon the operat- ing table. The blood was found to be coming from wound which protruded the tip of the silver wire. With infinite care the whole strand was taken out.
 Then, to the amazement of everybody the bleeding stopped. There is every indication that Williams is now abso- lutely well and that the new inner coat ing of the aorta is sufficiently strong to reinforce the weakened tissue that lies outside it.
 ''I feel as well as I ever did in my life and work every day without fa- tigue," said Williams today.-Philadel- phia dispatch to the New York Press.