Document:

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                                                                   EXHIBIT 10.8

                            SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE
                             OPERATING AGREEMENT OF
                 LAFAYETTE HEART HOSPITAL, LLC (the "Company")

         THIS SECOND AMENDMENT to the Operating Agreement of the Company is
effective as of the date the Operating Agreement is initially adopted by its
Member(s) (the "Amendment").

         1.       Section 5.10(b)(iii) of the Operating Agreement is hereby
deleted and replaced in its entirety with the following:

                  Nothing herein shall prevent the Owner or Practice from
         providing cardiac services within the scope of such Owner's or
         Practice's regular office(s) for the practice of medicine so long as
         they do not provide diagnostic or interventional cardiac
         catheterization services in such office; provided, however, that the
         provision of diagnostic and therapeutic (but not interventional)
         cardiac catheterization services through a single mobile or fixed
         cardiac catheterization laboratory only at the site set forth on
         Exhibit C, by an Owner or Practice holding an ownership interest in
         such cardiac catheterization laboratory (whether or not such ownership
         interest was acquired before or after the date hereof), shall not be
         prohibited by this Section 5.10(b)(iii);

         2.       In addition, Exhibit C to the Operating Agreement is hereby
deleted in its entirety and replaced with the attached Exhibit C.

Except as provided herein, the Operating Agreement shall remain in full force
and effect.

                                            MEMBER(S):

                                            LAFAYETTE HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT, INC.

                                            By: /s/ Dennis I. Kelly
                                                -------------------------------
                                            Title: SVP

[***]

[***] These portions of this exhibit have been omitted and filed separately
with the Commission pursuant to a request for confidential treatment.

<PAGE>

                                   EXHIBIT C
                                     TO THE
                              OPERATING AGREEMENT
                                       OF
                         LAFAYETTE HEART HOSPITAL, LLC
                      A Delaware Limited Liability Company

              PERMITTED SITE FOR CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION SERVICES

                             401 St. Julien Avenue
                              Lafayette, LA 70506<PAGE>

                                                                   EXHIBIT 10.9

                             THIRD AMENDMENT TO THE
                             OPERATING AGREEMENT OF
                 LAFAYETTE HEART HOSPITAL, LLC (the "Company")

         THIS THIRD AMENDMENT (the "Amendment") to the Operating Agreement of
the Company (the "Agreement") is effective as of the date the Agreement is
initially adopted by its Member(s).

         1.       A new Section 3.5(g) of the Agreement shall be added as
                  follows:

         "(g)     Notwithstanding anything in Section 3.5(c) and 3.5(e) to the
contrary, in no event shall the Board of Directors require, prior to the
Opening Date, any mandatory additional Capital Contributions from any Member
pursuant to Section 3.5(c) or request any additional optional Capital
Contributions from any member pursuant to Section 3.5(e) as a result of the
aggregate actual cost of all the items included in the Capital Expenses Budget
as set forth in the Company's offering documents, as amended, and the Company's
Pre-Opening Expenses (the "Actual Cost"), exceeding an aggregate amount of $33
million (the "Maximum"), so long as each of the following conditions are
satisfied:

                  (i)      All Members of the Company have, in the aggregate,
         contributed the full amount of the initial Capital Contributions
         required by Section 3.1 of the Agreement;

                  (ii)     Not more than one million ($1,000,000) of the
         difference between the Actual Cost and $29,415,000, is a result of any
         one or more of the following: (x) costs incurred by the Company due to
         Acts of God, civil or military authority, acts of public enemy, war,
         accidents, fires, explosions, earthquakes, floods, failure of
         transportation, strikes or other work interruptions by employees of
         any similar or dissimilar cause beyond the reasonable control of LHMI;
         (y) changes approved by the Board in the scope of services to be
         provided by the Hospital as currently set forth in Section 2.3 of the
         Agreement, including without limitation any change in the square
         footage or number of operating rooms or cardiac catheterization
         laboratories of the Hospital; or (z) changes approved by the Board in
         the equipment to be purchased for the Hospital beyond that
         contemplated by the Company's offering documents, as amended; and

                  (iii)    LHMI has approved the contractor selected by the
         Company's Board of Directors for the construction of the Hospital.

If any of the conditions set forth in (i) to (iii) are not satisfied, the Board
of Directors shall be permitted to require or request additional Capital
Contributions otherwise in accordance with the terms of this Agreement at any
time, whether before or after the Opening Date. If all of the conditions set
forth in(i) to (iii) are satisfied and the Board of Directors determines that
additional funds are needed by the Company, and the Company is then unable
pursuant to this Section 3.5(g) to make additional capital calls, and so long
as such additional funding is approved by the Board of Directors in the manner
as specified in this Agreement (the approval of the members of the Board of
Directors not to be unreasonably withheld or delayed), the LHMI
<PAGE>

or one of its Affiliates shall be required to arrange, if permitted by
Company's current obligations to its Lenders (using commercially reasonable
efforts to obtain Lender approval therefor), financing pursuant to Section
3.5(b). If such financing is not available, LHMI or one of its Affiliates shall
be required to loan such funds to the Company at the Prime Rate plus one
percent (1%) per annum which loan shall be secured by the Company's assets, and
such loan shall be deemed made pursuant to Section 3.5(d) of this Agreement.
Interest shall be paid monthly in arrears and principal shall be repaid
according to a schedule to be reasonably agreed upon by the Company and LHMI or
its Affiliate. In no event shall this additional loan made by LHMI or one of
its Affiliates increase any principal amount of loans required to be made by
LHMI or its Affiliate pursuant to Section 3.5(a) or 3.5(c), including loans
required to be made for purposes of fulfilling the requirements of Sections
3.5(c) or 3.5(e) as a condition to the Board of Directors requiring or
requesting additional Capital Contributions."

Capitalized terms not defined herein shall be defined as set forth in the
Agreement. Except as provided herein, and as provided in the First and Second
Amendments to the Agreement previously agreed to by the Members, the Agreement
shall remain in full force and effect.

                                            MEMBER(S):

                                            LAFAYETTE HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT, INC.

                                            By: /s/ Dennis I. Kelly
                                                -------------------------------
                                            Title: Vice President

[***]

[***]    These portions of this exhibit have been omitted and filed separately
with the Commission pursuant to a request for confidential treatment.
<PAGE>

For the sole and exclusive purposes of (i) guaranteeing the full performance of
LHMI's obligations under Article III of the Agreement to make initial capital
contributions pursuant to Section 3.1 and to make additional capital
contributions up to the maximum obligation of LHMI for such additional capital
contributions pursuant to Section 3.5(c) of the Agreement; (ii) guaranteeing
the obligations of LHMI with respect to the loans to the Company under Section
3.5(a) and 3.5(g) of the Agreement; (iii) guaranteeing the obligations of LHMI
with respect to the non-compete provisions of Section 5.10 of the Agreement;
and (iv) otherwise acknowledging the rights and responsibilities of LHMI under
this Agreement, MedCath Corporation hereby executed this Amendment.

                                            MEDCATH INCORPORATED

                                            By: /s/ Dennis I. Kelly
                                                -------------------------------
                                            Title: Senior VPSuperconductor Technologies Inc., Exhibit 10.1

 

EXHIBIT 10.1

SUPERCONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGIES INC. CONVERTS

SERIES E PREFERRED STOCK

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., September 30, 2002 — Superconductor Technologies Inc.
(Nasdaq: SCON) (“STI”), the global leader in high-temperature superconducting
(HTS) products for wireless applications, today announced it has converted the
remainder of its Series E preferred stock into 2,155,261 common shares in
accordance with the contractual requirements of the private placement issued
September 29, 2000. The associated conversion premium was paid with $3.0
million in cash and $1.7 million in a subordinated note, rather than issuing
stock as was allowed under the original agreement. The subordinated note
carries eight percent interest and is due in eighteen months.

After conversion of the Series E preferred stock, STI has 25,198,270 common
shares outstanding.

About Superconductor Technologies Inc.

Superconductor Technologies Inc., headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA, is the
global leader in developing, manufacturing, and marketing superconducting
products for wireless networks.

STI’s SuperLinkTM products are proven to increase capacity utilization, lower
dropped and blocked calls, extend coverage, and enable higher wireless
transmission data rates. SuperFilter®, the company’s flagship product,
incorporates patented high-temperature superconductor (HTS) technology to
create a cryogenic receiver front-end (CRFE) used by wireless operators to
enhance network performance while reducing capital and operating costs.

More than 1,600 SuperFilter Systems have been deployed worldwide, logging in
excess of 20 million hours of cumulative operation. In 2002, STI was named one
of Deloitte & Touche’s prestigious “Technology Fast 50” companies for the Los
Angeles area, a ranking of the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the
area.

SuperFilter and SuperLink are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Superconductor Technologies Inc. in the United States and in other countries.
For information about STI, please visit http://www.suptech.com.

For further information please contact Martin McDermut, Senior Vice President,
Chief Financial Officer of Superconductor Technologies Inc., +1-805-690-4500,
mmcdermut@suptech.com; or Investors, Lillian Armstrong, lillian@lhai-sf.com or
Moriah Shilton of Lippert / Heilshorn & Associates, +1-415-433-3777, for
Superconductor Technologies Inc.

###

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