BROUGHT TO LIFE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20540, 15 February 1935, Page 1

BROUGHT TO LIFE.

Gold Needle Re-starts Heart. NEW YORK, February 6. Two hundred “ dead ” people have been restored to life in New York and Chicago by a gold needle which stimulates the beating of the heart with electrical impulses. This needle was brought out two years ago by the Witkin foundation of Beth David Hospital, New York City. It was found that the heart has an electrical pacemaker of its own—a small group of cells in the right auricle which seem to regulate the beat of the entire heart muscle. The gold electrical needle is used to substitute for these pacemaking cells. In the left side of the heart the electric needle may set off beat impulses to interfere with the signals of the natural pacemaker on the other side of the heart. It is that kind of interference which mild electric shocks cause, resulting frequently in death. For a long time the cause of death from such light shocks was not understood. Now it is one of the forms of death which can be recalled, simply by using the gold needle on the other side of the heart. The steps taken in restoring life after a heart stops. beating now comprise four cycles. First, in the 90 seconds immediately after the heart stoppage, when acidity and electrical conductivity are rising, the chance of revival is SO per cent, either by gold needle or by the older forms of stimulation. After 90 seconds and, up to 5 minutes the gold needle drops to 70 per cent; the. others to 30. From 5 to 8 minutes after death the other stimulants lose all chances of recall to life, but the gold needle can still bring back about 30 per cent. After 8 minutes there is no uniformity. A few have come back to life after 10 minutes. The longest for the gold needle is 14 minutes. A pencilled note demanding £IO.OOO ransom was left by the kidnappers, who wrote thirty-one letters from Boston and New York during the seventythree days that elapsed before the baby s body was found in a wood a few miles fro*-- his home. As the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic, Lindbergh was a national idol. His wife was the daughter of cne of the wealthiest and most honoured men in the United States, and during the week that followed the kidnapping the American nation thought of nothing but the crime. Costly Search. Three hundred suspects were arrested in one swoop by the police: 400 letters, mostly fraudulent, were received from persons claiming to have kidnapped the baby, and a huge sum was spent by Lindbergh and his friends in attempting to recover the child. Dr John F. Condon, a lifelong friend of Mrs Lindbergh’s family, paid £IO.OOO on behalf of Colonel Lindbergh to the kidnappers, who promised to leave the child at a certain place. Lindbergh flew to the spot, but the kidnappers, who had killed the child in their terror, failed to keep their promise. Five months after the kidnapping Mrs Lindbergh gave birth to another son. Although a" threatening letter from persons calling themselves kidnappers was received, no attempt has been made to kidnap him.