RARE OPERATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23595, 3 September 1938, Page 19

RARE OPERATION

GAMBLE ON SURGEON'S SKILL STONE CASING REMOVED FROM HEART P YOUNG MAN STEADILY RECOVERING {Per United Press Association) AUCKLAND, Sept. 2. After gambling his life on a surgeon's skill and winning, a young man passed through Auckland by the Monterey bound for his home in Melbourne, where he will recuperate from a daring and extremely rare operation performed in the United States. Literally the operation freed his heart from a casing of stone which had been slowly but relentlessly constricting it. The young man is Mr A. M. Wat-kins, aged 26, of 55 Barber's road, Kew, Melbourne. Six montns ago he passed through Auckland with the knowledge that, failing a successful operation, he could not expect to live beyond the present month. Now, with the operation past, he can look forward to a normal lifetime. He cannot speak too highly of the expert surgeon who attended him, and his sentiments are repeated by his young wife and his parents, who accombany him. His trouble developed eight years ago. It took time to make its presence felt, and did not cause inconvenience until early last March. The root of the complaint was then diagnosed as lime def>osit which was slowly closing a vein eading blood to the heart by tightening around it.

Instead of performing its proper function the heart was not able to treat sufficient blood to cope with the food •consumed by Mr Watkins. The result was that his blood turned to water and a form of dropsy developed. After many preliminary examinations Mr Watkins was operated upon early in May by Dr Stuart W. Harrington, of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota The operation on the heart took two hours, while the whole operation took slightly more than four hours. For two hours the heart lay exposed oartly in and partly out of the body while Dr Harrington chipped and cut away the rock-like substance which was choking it. So that life would not stop the surgeon worked at the calcined pericardium or sac enclosing the hear, for two or three minutes and then applied a warm cloth to the heart for an equal length of time. This procedure,' followed to allow the heart to recuperate, was repeated through 120 minutes, and each time a small part of the grey-white mass was removed For much of the time Dr Harrington held the ,pulsating organ in his hand. The calcified coating completely surrounded the heart; and it was only by lifting it out of the chest that' he could work at the under side. To allow the operation to ba performed, it was necessary to cut off the tips of four of Mr Watkins's ribs. Between 50 and 60 small veins were cut and tied before it was completed. The heart expanded considerably in diameter immediately after it had been freed. Mr Watkins's recovery from the operation was rapid. An oxygen tent assisted breathing for the first few days, but soon the heart was able to perfdrm its functions without artificial aid! Then, when it appeared as though he would be ready to leave hospital three weeks after the operation, he developed serious influenza, and for several, days hovered between life and death. The crisis passed, however, and he was able to leave hospital at the end of a further six weeks.

4 It has given me a new lease of life." Mr Watkins said. "Before the operation I was a semi-invalid given only six months to live. Now I am getting better every day and have the future to look forward to. "There was no alternative to the operation, which was very dangerous," he added. "I am very thankful my father took me to the United States and I am glad to have come safely through."