Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-03-18
BY John McKeiwoy

tremendous strides in the field
of surgery. particularly in the
treatment of heart disease. was
revealed yesterday at Children's
Hospital.
The technique used in the OPP
Grafton is believed to be the first
Of its type in this area. 1t was
performed on an 8-year-old boy.
born with a congenital defect in
his heart and described as a
typical blue baby" A descrip-
ton of his present condition is
still approached with caution by
doctors, yet they say he is
progressing as well as we
hoped" Without the operation.
the child faced premature
death.
The high point Of the opera
ton. 1t has been explained. was
not so much in the actual sur
gerry. but in the fact that the
child'S blood flow was stopped
for a period of six minutes and
10 seconds. This was accom-
plished by lowering the child's
body temperature by a technique
called "hypothermia."
During the six minutes, a
heart surgeon was able to cut
into the heart and work in a
relatively blood-free area. The
great advantage was that the
surgeon could see what he was
doing by actually looking inside
the heart. In the past. surgeons
have had to operate inside the
heart blindly and mainly by feel.
Not First of Kind.
Doctors who took part in the
operation have emphasized they
are not the first to perform this
type Of operation. 1t is, rather.
an extension of the work done
in Denver by Mrs. Henry Swan
and Robert Virtue. They de-
veloped the technique and have
completed about 80 operations
along the same lines.
Before the operation was ap-
piled to human beings, the
procedure was carried out ex-
perimentally on more than 100
dogs. Three of the doctors who
took part in the operation at
Children's journeyed to Denver
last January to learn the tech
nique.
Several other medical centers
in the Washington area have
been working with hypothermia
but are employing different
methods.
After exhaustive diagnoStic
measures to determine the exact
point of the defect in the child's
heart and one postponement
owing to an infection in the
child. the operation finally was
scheduled for last Sunday. The
off day was selected because the
doctors wanted all the hospitals
operating facilities available.
On Friday the child was ad-
mitted to the hospital and given
heavy doses of antibiotics.
Dress Rehearsal.
On Saturday, the doctors
staged a dry-run-without the
patient. All equipment was
tested.
At 8:35 am. Sunday, the child
was wheeled into the operating
room of Children's Hospital and
was anesthetized.
A tube was placed down into
his wind pipe to assure normal
breathing and to make it pos
sible for mechanical breathing
later.
At 9:03 am, the patient was
lowered into q bath tub filled
with ice cubes and water. The
temperature of the water was
about 40 degrees. At this point.
the child's temperature was nor
NAL at 98.6 degrees.
At 9:29 am. the child was re-
moved from the ice bath. His
temperature had dropped to IS
degrees. The temperature con-
tinued to fall as he was placed
on a rubber mattress through
which cold water was circulating.
When his temperature reached
80 degrees, the circulating water
was warmed and the tempera-
ture held at 80.
He was unconscious and free
from pain. His voluntary breath
ing had stopped. but this was
expected. The anesthesiologist