The Power of Cooperation
Morgan, Edward P.
The Power of Cooperation by EDWARD P. MORGAN This article is adapted from one of Mr. Morgan's nightly commentaries on the news sponsored by the AFL-CIO—in our judgment one of the most...
...He died, but he didn't...
...Francis Hospital in Roslyn, Long Island, found the aorta had already sprung a leak and the blood had clotted outside it...
...Things did not go perfectly...
...Edgar P. Mannis, who was in charge of the operation, and Dr...
...Today David Fleming is alive and convalescing, thanks not just to rare good fortune and brilliant surgery but to an un-measurable kind of power of cooperation that can, when mobilized, cut through human obstacles to demonstrate that man is still a more marvelous mechanism than any machine or missile he has yet invented...
...Instantly, the chief resident surgeon took the heart in his two hands and began massaging it in an effort to keep the blood flowing to David's upper body, especially the brain...
...It arrived just in time...
...Francis, Dr...
...Edward Braun-stein, the chief cardiac surgeon, are Catholics...
...The problem: to replace the diseased section with a piece of healthy tissue from the aorta of a dead man—an extremely delicate and risky operation even if everything went perfectly...
...At a point where this big vessel descends through the chest to carry the heart's blood to the lower body, the aorta was puckered to a narrow channel...
...Raj Mahajan, stared at the still heart pressed between his hands...
...David had a defect in his aorta...
...Dorothy Finken, is Jewish...
...Fourteen pints were needed in all...
...The surgical director of St...
...After David had been on the operating table two hours the leak burst...
...Rocco Andriello, lately of Italy, Dr...
...Thomas Economopoulos, recently of Greece...
...One moment," he recalls now, "it was a flabby, dead organ...
...Francis Hospital, which specializes in cardiac services, has itself an interesting history...
...The resident surgeon, Dr...
...And if they can revive a heartbeat, what is there, really, that they cannot do, if they are moved to...
...The boy began bleeding to death...
...his heart stopped...
...An urgent call had been broadcast for more...
...Suddenly it swelled alive — strong, firm and pumping steadily...
...By now almost everybody must have heard or read about what happened to tow-headed, six-year-old David Fleming, Jr., of Queens Village, New York...
...The six-pint supply of David's type O Rh-negative blood was used up in transfusions...
...The assistant cardiologist, Dr...
...The rest of the medical staff—there were 15 persons directly involved in the operation —included Dr...
...Morgan's nightly commentaries on the news sponsored by the AFL-CIO—in our judgment one of the most distinguished programs of news analysis on any network.—The Editors...
...But the deeply wonderful fact about this story, it seems to me, is that underneath their many skins, men are capable of pooling their efforts in vast achievement...
...Its land was donated by a Quaker, the hospital was planned by a Jew, the present medical director is a Protestant, and the head of surgery a Catholic...
...Oliver French, lately of England, and Dr...
...This caused a dangerous swelling, as if from a crimp in a thin garden hose...
...For nearly three hours doctors took turns at this tense, tender exercise while the operating team worked with desperate efficiency on the broken aorta...
...Surgeons at St...
...Mahajan is a 30-year-old Hindu from India who came here in 1951 on a Fulbright fellowship...
...Finally, the last stitch was made...
Vol. 22 • March 1958 • No. 3
