"BLUE BABY” RETURNS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25248, 29 July 1947, Page 6

"BLUE BABY” RETURNS

SUCCESS OF MODERN SURGERY

CHILD TAKEN TO U.S. FOR RARE OPERATION

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, July 28. Transformed into a normal child by a miracle o£ modern surgery, the former ‘‘blue baby,’.’ Marie Stewart, five-year-old twin daughter of Mrs R. J. W. Rose, of College street, Palmerston North, returned to Auckland by the Marine Phoenix with her mother and step-father to-day. The child, who from birth suffered from a rare form of cyanosis which gave her a blueblack colour from head to foot, was operated on in the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, by the chief surgeon, Dr. Alfred Blalock, the world’s leading specialist in the disease. When Marie Stewart left for the United States in the Marine Phoenixon April 18 she was blue-black all over. She frequently lapsed into unconsciousness, and could scarcely walk. To-day, she had the complexion of a reasonably healthy little girl, and could use her legs so well that she was missing when her parents were getting ready to disembark, having run out of the cabin and down the passageway unobserved. “Marvellous Transformation” ‘‘K is an absolutely marvellous transformation,” said Mrs Rose. “Marie can now go to school this year and lead a perfectly normal life. You could see the change immediately after she left hospital. She was a little white girl when she came back to us.” The child was admitted to the Johns Hopkins Hospital about May 12, and - underwent an operation on May 21, continued Mrs Rose. She was found to be a typical case of tetrology, the medical term for ‘‘blue baby” condition, and that had contributed toward the success .of the operation. , The surgery had taken three hours and Marie was discharged from hospital two and a half weeks later.

Mrs Rose said her daughter was the 401st child to have an operation for the disease at the hospital, and there were another 1000 on the waiting list. They were coming from such countries as France, England, and Austria, as well as parts of America. She said the idea for the operation had first been conceived by Dr. Helen Taussig, who was in charge of the heart clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

The cost of taking Marie Stewart to the United States for the operation will be about £2OOO. Of this amount, about £1750 was raised by public subscription, mainly in Palmerston North. Her father was killed over Germany while serving with the Royal Air Force. The child was examined m Auckland to-day by leading physicians and surgeons, who considered the operation to have been remarkably successful.

EXTREMELY DELICATE OPERATION

DESCRIPTION BY FORMER AUCKLAND DOCTOR "The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, July 28.

A* description of the delicate operation performed to cure "blue baby” cases was given by Dr. Rowan Nicks, who arrived at Auckland to-day in the Marine Phoenix to take up the position of assistant thoracic surgeon at the Green Lane Hospital. Dr. Nicks is a former Auckland resident. # Dr. Nicks said it might soon be possible for such operations to be done locally. The “blue naby” condition was caused if one of the main pulmonary arteries leading from the heart was abnormally small. To offset this by surgery, an artificial communication was made with the main arterial system to provide a greatly increased supply of blood to the lungs. The operation, which was extremely delicate, was performed not as a cure but for making the best of a very serious abnormality. Before the treatment had been developed in the United States nothing could be done for such children.

.Little in the way of overcoming the. abnormality had been done in England because of the war. Before he went overseas at the end of 1938, Dr. Nicks, who is 33, was resident medical officer at the Auckland Hospital. While holding the post of demonstrator in anatomy.at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, he joined the Royal Navy, in which he served for five years and a half. He was surgeon fit the Brompton Hospital in London after demobilisation. For the last six months he has been studying 4n Scandinavia and the United States.