Evening star., 1953-07-06
First Patients
Reach Bethesda
Clinical Center
Montgomery Former
To Figure in Major
Research Project
By John McKelwoy

The $64 million Clinical Gen.
ter in Bethesda, seven years in
planning and construction. to-
day opened its doors and went
into business.
A gray-haired, elderly man,
identified only as "Montgom-
cry County farmer" was the first
patient to enter the impressive
structure operated by the Public
Health Service.
He chatted cheerfully to a
doctor about farming and then
was wheeled away to become an
object of intense treatment re-
search. A spokesman of the CEN
ter would describe his illness
only as serious"
Fifteen other patients were to
arrive throughout the day. Seven
were said to. be heart patients.
three arthritic patients and six
victims of cancer.
Start Research Project.
The Clinical Center is a wing
of the National Institutes Of
Health-research arm of the
Public Health Service. Each in
stitute will, in time, have a GER
tain number of patients at the
Clinical Center.
Two of the persons-one a
middle-aged man and the other a
young woman-who were ad-
mitted to the hospital today will
begin research project OF the
National Heart Institute.
Each, it has been found in
prior examinations and treat
ment, has a high fatty content
in the blood stream. The re-
search project will determine the
role of this fatty content in the
development of the disease
known as hardening of the
arteries.
Another group of heart pa
tients will be several men, 40 to
so years old, who have a long
history Of high blood pressure.
Further study in drugs which
seem to have a reducing effect
in high blood pressure will be
carried out. 9
Victim of Diabetes.
Another patient was described
by a spokesman of the center
as a man in his early COS. Last
year he lost so pounds and it
was discovered he had diabetes.
He will be patient of the Ma
tional Institute of Arthritis and
Metabolic Diseases.
Scientists and doctors, working
together, will attempt to arrest
the diabetes, while at the same
time diet studies are being car.
ried on.
"The patient" a doctor said.
"is very anxious to help in the
study of diabetes. He recognizes
the need to discover the best
diet for a diabetic while treat
ment to regulate the disease is
being carried on"
The youngest patient is de-
scribed as a "teen-ager" from
Baltimore. Since the age of 10
! he has been crippled with ar
Thrills and hospitalized five times
in the past four years. In the
last few month his illness has
grown worse.
Referred by Physicians.
He will receive at the Clinical
Center a continuation of the
| treatment he has received up
to date.
All the patients have been re-
ferred to doctors of the Public
Health Service by private physi-
clans. They can spend any
where up to five months to a
year at the center-eVen more IN
some cases.
On their release from the CEN
ter they will resume being cared
for by their personal physician
but still may return to the CEN
ter for follow studies of va
rious research projects.
A spokesman said the names
of patients will be withheld from
the public for their own protec-
tion. He pointed to the stigma"
still placed on diseases such as
/ cancer.
officials of the center said
they hoped to fill up to 26 beds
| h1, tho o,,d IF fhic uyook