Surgeon Brings Back Blue Baby Technique

Chronicle (Levin), 2 July 1948, Page 7

Surgeon Brings Back Blue Baby Technique

Pr^ss Association )

(Per

AUCKLAND, July 1. After a. four inontlis' visit ovorseas to study " bltte baby" operations and other aspects of heart and chest surgery, iJr. Douglas Robb, an Auckland surgeon, has returned bv Pan-Atuericaii Airwavs clipper. Mr. Robb travelled by air to the United States, Canada, Kngland and Seotland, at the request o the New Zealand Ctoverunient. 11 is intended later to inaugurate tlie work studied by liiiu, at the (>reen Lane llospital where patients will be sent f ro in all parts of tlie Dominion. Mr. Robb said the work lie liad been studying was a niost ditlicult aiut rapidly progressive branch of medicine and surgerv. The " blue baby" opcr atiou was devised in Daltiinore through the coinbined efl'orts of Dr. Helen Taussig, a physician, and Dr. Alfred Blalock, a surgeon at the Johns Hopkins llospital. It had since been practised exteusively elsewhere, notably i Clficago, Boston, Toronto, California. Guy's llospital (London) and in Stoek holni. In those and niany other cenbres the original subjeet and its iiow many djjrivativos, were being actively purau ed by rosearcli workers with iuodern equipnient, said M r. Robb. Simultaneously a numoer of promising developments in heart surgery in general were going forward. It was too early to determine their practical value yet. However, it was not an undue expectation that within five or ten years it would be possible to carry out all necessary procedures on the heart such as mending leaky valves and opening up narrowed channels as calmly and deliberately as on another organ. Surgery of the heart and blood vessels was the most rlctively developing branch of surgery at.the preseut time. However, that did not uiean that all problenis relating to heart disease were solved. On the contrary, vasl medieal questions of cause and prevention of degenerative di.seases of tlie heart and blood vessels, still awaited solutious

Britain's MediCal Scheme, • The nevv uiedical scheme in Britain was to begin this niontli, said Mr. Robb, and it was a vastly more comprehensive oue than New Zealand 's. It iuvolved many farrearching changes. All sections seenied to be addressing thenlselve^ to tlie question with sonie trepidation allhough all aspects had been debated lully for several vears. The task was a colossal one and oue doubted whether so niueh eould be dojie well in a short time. Admirable as inany of the objectives were in face of building and staffing diffieulties, full hospital provision, let alone health centres, miglit- prove impossible of fuliilment for many years.