RESTORATION OF LIFE

Levin Daily Chronicle, 10 September 1918, Page 1

RESTORATION OF LIFE

* COLLAPSE DURING OPERATION. HEART MASSAGE EFFECTIVE. REMARKABLE CASE IN AUCKLAND. The efficacy of heart massage for the restoration ol ! life in patients collapsin. on the operating table is endorsed b; Mr Cairiek Robertson, of Auckland, ii an article in the current issue of thi "New Zealand Medical Journal." "A 1 though heart massage is fairly wel known as a possible procedure," he-re marks, "I have not heard any persona' reports •of such cases, so I venture tc think the record of these cases may be of interest to the profession in New Zealand.'' Mr Robertson states that he has had several cases of heart massage during the last year or two,-and he describes in detail a '' striking example of fts saving powers." In this case, a sailor went to the Auckland Hospital with a scptic thumb, but otherwise apparently in good health. He was placcd under a general anaesthetic, and the abscess was lanced. It was then noticed that the patient's heart had stopped beating and the respirations were dying away. Artificial respiration was started, and Mr Robertson, who happened to be in the hospital at the time, was summoned. On arrival, he found that the man was quite white, and there were no I heart sounds, neither had voluntary reI spiration been restored. The man seemIcd quite dead. Making the necessary surgical in.cision, Mr Robertson introduced his hand and grasped the heart iinnly. Finding that there was no muscular movement in the heart, the surgeon squeezed it between his hand and the ribs several times, whereupon it gave a distinct, but feeble, kick, followed by slow and f&eble contractions, which soon became bounding and rapid. The wound was sewn up, and the patient put to bed. The patient remained in a very excited condition for 12 hours, but two days after the operation he was quite normal, but could not remember going - to the hospital or anything that had happened during the two days. He made a complete "recovery. The interest of the case, as Mr Robertson emphasises in his paper, lies particularly in the fact that at the lowest calculation the man must have been dead for three minutes, probably five. In an earlier ease of heart massage performed by Mr Robertson the subject ; was a man on whom he was operating for appendicitis. This man did well, but the result was not so striking as in tin case just described, for a very little time elapsed between his heart stop- I ping and the massage which restarted ; it. In a third case in which this man- j oeuvre was tried Mr Robertson was un- j successful. "It ■will be seen that heart massage ' adds another efficient, method of dealing with cases of sudden collapse on ! the operating table,'' Mr Robertson re- ' marks in concluding the article. "With the experiences recorded above, I am ! firmly convinced that when the surgeon , is sure that the heart has stopped there should be no excuse for not applying this procedure; but I should like to emphasise the fact that this should only be done after failure to restore animation with the usual restoratives, and, judging from the first case, it would seem that there is no great hurry, for the heart will respond after a comparatively long latent period." a status all the more remarkable when we remember that it is hardly more than a half-score years ago that the Wrights first flew in a motor-driven, heavier- than-air machine at Kitty Hawk, N.C., and nine years last October since Wilbur Wright made the first hour's flgiht with a passenger at Lc Mans, France. Briefly summed up, the modern. airpiano is able to carry a useful load, including its crew of some 2000 pounds, - to fly from 600 to 1000 miles without landing ,at speed of from eighty to 100 miles an hour, to fly with one motor where twin motored, and to fly in almost any kind of weather. Were it not for the fact that practically all use of aircraft throughout the world is now under the control of the military authorities, and that up to the present, at least, such a feat would accomplish no useful military purpose, the long discussed trans-At-lantic flight would be an actuality. The longest single flight necessary, that from St. Johns, Newfoundland, to the nearest island of the Azores, is 1195 miles, or just 125 miles farther than the present record of Captain Laureati. From the Azores to Lisburn, Portugal, is SSO miles and the distance from there to the English coast is slightly shorter. The distance from St. Johns to the west coast of Ireland is 1780 miles, which should bo possible for some of the big military bombinpmachines, with extra fuel substituted for their usual load of explosives.