 | The Cavalier daily. Thursday, February 20, 1969 |  |
Transplant Future Hopeful
Predicts Heart Surgeon
By Corbin Eissler
"No other medical procedure
has so electrified the world" said
Dr. Denton A. Cooley of heart
transplant operations, in a lecture
given at the University Medical
School on Wednesday.
Dr. Cooley is a Houston heart
surgeon who has performed more
heart transplant operations then
any other surgeons in the world. He
is a professor of surgery at the
Baylor University College of
Medicine, and is the founder of and
chief fund raiser for the Texas
Heart Institute in Houston.
In addition Dr. Cooley is the
chief of cardiovascular surgery at
St. Luke's Episcopal-Texas
Children's Hospital, and his interest
in infant heart disorders lead to his
participation in the early
development of the Blalock
operation for blue babies.
Dr. Cooley spoke on "Cardiac
Transplantation in Man: Results
and Conclusions", and his talk was
sponsored by the Southern Medical
Association. The lecture consisted
of a movie showing an actual heart
transplant in a five year old girl,
with commentary by Dr. Cooley.
This was followed by a series of
slides that illustrated the technical,
ethical and moral aspects of a heart
transplant.
"From a technical standpoint
cardiac transplantation has been
perfected" Said Dr. Cooley. The
average operation takes only about
30 minutes, while the heart is
capable of living outside the body
for at least three hours. There has
been no real evidence of
operational failure, as almost all
patients survive the operation.
The main reason for the death
of heart recipients, according to Dr.
Cooley, is the appearance of
"subsequent complications". These
complications are usually either the
rejection of the heart by the
recipient, or infection. A balance
must be maintained between the
patient's natural immunity that
tends to reject the heart, and the
anti-immunization drugs that lower
this immunity and rejection, but at
the same time run the risk of
infection.
On the question of the ethics
and morality of transplants, Dr.
Cooley said, "We have tried to
protect the rights of the donor and
the recipient."
| The Cavalier daily. Thursday, February 20, 1969 | |