BRINGING THE DEAD TO LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 148, 25 June 1938, Page 27

BRINGING THE DEAD TO LIFE

- M Dr. Albert S. Hyman, inventor of the. .'artificial heart-pacer, has demonstrated that the heart had two stagos of death, writes' Henry Hobinson in the "American Mercury." The first, lasting for '90 ' seconds, is -a period during which it can be revived by pricking it with the needle of the heart-pacer. After the first 90 seconds there develops in the dying heart a second period lasting up- to-15 minutes during which reactivation' may be possible. Dozens of persons who .have been giver*, up for dead by relatives and j phy«cians h "have been .reanimated by the use of this new electrical "life flashlight." The instrument is beyond the experimental stage. Quite simply, the principle underlying the artificial heart-pacer is an electrical apparatus capable of producing current, identical with the electrical energy ordinarily generated by the heart itself. In • series of experiments Dr. Hyman discovered the exact type of electricity necessary, and found that 1/lOflOof a volt was sufficient. His next problem Was that of delivering the current to the sinus node, or group of cells which develop, electric current in-the body that causes the heart to beat This he did with a 19-gauge gold injecting needle, about 4sin long. The first case to present itself after the laboratory experiments was that' of a middle-aged man suffering from pneumonia, who underwent an operation to, have the pus drained.from his pleural, cavity. As frequently happens after this; operation, the heart• "went into a flutter" from which it did not recover; Injections of adrenalin were imavaiiing.: The heart stopped. After five minutes the physicians abandoned hope of reviving the patient. Preparations

were being made to remove the body when an interne "suggested the use of Dr. Hyman's new heart-pacer, which was in the laboratory downstairs, where the doctor was" experimenting on some animals. Dr. Hyman was summoned and arrived eight minutes after the patient had been pronounced dead. Taking asceptic precautions, "Dr. (Hyman plunged the golden needle into the interspace of the dead .man's third and fourth ribs, on the right side, of the breastbone, penetrating the stilled heart to its nodal core. As if by magic the dead heart commenced to beat, the colour returned to the patient's face, and he manifested signs of being yery much alive. He was indeed alive and remained so for several days. But pneumonia had fatally weakened him !andihe succumbed at last to this disease. As the figures stand today, | the heart-pacer has obtained favourable ; results in one out of every four attempts. .'- ; ". j Originally the machine' was a large land complicated piece of laboratory equipment weighing 901b and taking up as much space as a kitchen "table. In 1931 it had been reduced to the site lof a small suitcase arid weighing 401b. Three years later a model was devised no bigger than a cigar box. Finally, in 1935, - Dr. Hyman perfected a pacemaker which is only 6in long and ; weighs less than a pound and costs about £10. It is still too early for final determination to be made, but conservative medical opinion agrees that during the. few precious moments that elapse between the initial collapse and the descent of ultimate death thejpacev maker may be -.employed, rationally and hopefully, to resuscitate many human beings formerly given up for dead.