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Article: Doctor who did 3-way transplant defends his pioneering surgery
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- May 17, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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The chief of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins University
Hospital has strongly defended the world's first three-way
transplant, using the heart of a living donor.
Critics from Cambridge, England, and Toronto, Ontario, have
questioned the wisdom and necessity for the procedure, performed last
Monday at Hopkins in Baltimore, citing risks attached to cystic
fibrosis hearts, possible adverse psychological effects and the
availability of an experimental "lungs only" transplant.
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that produces a thick,
sticky mucous that clogs the lungs and digestive system.
During a 17-hour drama that unfolded between 5 p.m. Sunday and
10 a.m. Monday, two desperately ...