Cardiac surgery could not be possible without a extra corporeal circulation, and in fact, the heart was rarely touched by surgeons in the old times. We got a little overview of the procedures done today, for instance:
1.) Valve prostheses
2.) Coronary revascularization
3.) Cardiac Transplantation, and
4.) Treatment for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.
The first surgery of the heart was performed by a fellow named Walt Lillehei in 1954. In Göttingen, the first surgery was the closure of an atrial communication in 1956. Before the invention of the EC circulation machines, a technique called cross-circulation was used in children. Basically, one of their parents served as the EC 'machine'! In 1955, Mayo clinic developed the first heart-lung machine and with the advent of anesthesia, the understanding of heart phisiology, involvement of cardiology and better intensive care, heart operations were a dream come true!
There are many procedures that can be done today. There are also several machines that can prolong the lives of patients awaiting a transplant. These machines, or assist devices, are portable and can have either a rotational or a linear flow mechanism. The goal today is to better understand all this and develop newer methods and machines. That is why we need young researchers, new ideas, and intelligent design.
The hospital has 4 wards, 1100 EC circulation operations are performed each year, as well as 400 vascular and thoracic operations. There are 28 ORs for every specialty! We visited the ER, and got to see a new arrival pass by. It was a glimpse of real life! Some of us saw a bypass (revascularization) surgery and then we all went with Dr. Schmitto to see the animal research facilities and ORs. The animals are used to research heart failure. The doctors can induce this heart failure using several methods. The one Dr. Schmitto used involved microbeads that block segments of the coronaries in sheep. then the results are analyzed.
After our visit, we walked to a place where we began a small medical tour of the city. Aside from pointing out that half of us froze, it was interesting. Göttingen lies amongst one of the oldest trading routes in Europe. It has the oldest pharmacies around. For instance, the Universitäs-Apotheke was founded to bring doctors to teach at the University as part of an insurance program. At the same time, the Raths Apotheke had been there since 1332. The apothekes were founded when doctors (at the time monks, but later layspeople) could no longer make their own remedies (early 1200s). Medicine at the universität became modern in 5 ways: It became theoretical, practical, focused on biology, anatomy and chemistry. We visited a bathouse... which disproved our misconception that people in the Middle Ages were dirty folk! Well, at least until syphilis came around, a bathouse was a fun place... then they became a bit more private (no more mixed bathing :( ) Our last stops were in the first maternity hospital which was modern for its day with air circulation, semi-private rooms and good care. Next we saw Friedrich Wähler's statue. He was the first to synthesize urea. Finally, we stopped at a building with a plaque commemorating Johann Andreas Eisenbarth, a barber (surgeon) who was among the best of their kind, but was heavily criticized by colleages who made him seem like a brute.
Few notes on Amsterdam.... overpowering smell of Cannabis sativa, lots of sex shops, and the 'window shopping' on the Red Light district is true. On more positive notes, the Anne Frank Huis (House) "a museum with a story" was a worthwile visit, just seeing how they lived and the bravery of Otto Frank for opening it sends shivers down my spine. I saw the original diary of Annelise Marie Sara Frank (her full name), and the real bookcase door! To know that they were betrayed, arrested and separated is a very moving thing. Anne Frank died on March 31st, 1945, at the age of 16. The Van Gogh museum was equally amazing. It had what I consider his two most renouned works his Self Portrait as an Artist and Wheatfield with Crows. I also learned that he pressumably suffered from a rare epilepsy which caused manic mood swings during which he cut off a piece of his left earlobe (the famous Van Gogh's ear) and that he comitted suicide.
To close this blog, consider this quote:
"To build up a future you have to know the past"
~Otto Frank
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