DARING EXPERIMENT

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 150, 21 December 1929, Page 22

DARING EXPERIMENT

TUBE PASSED INTO HEART

The daring experiment of a doctor, who passed a sound or tube into his own heart ,:frbm an incision in the shoulder, is ' reported in the' current number of the "Clinical Weekly," one of the leading German medical papers> writes the Berlin correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph." His complete success is believed to be the first step towards a new treatment for urgent cases, such as sometimes follow violent shocks, in which the life of the patient depends upon a rapid and direct administration of stimulants to the heart.

For the purpose of his experiment, Dr. Forssmarin, who is assistant surgeon at ajhospita^at Eberswald, used a wellr oiled and carefully sterilised elastic tube rather more than a couple of feet in length. First he made a trial with a human corpse, following the progress of the sound by means of an X-ray apparatus.

This having proved satisfactory, he made an incision in tlio wall of the vein of his own left shoulder and inserted tubes, which, he carefully pushed 'forward'" below the collarbone "to the next^yein,. and then.through the vena cava-ttlro large" -vein' "Which"" transmits tho blood of tho head and upper :ex-. treniitie3) into the right side of • the heart. While he was doing this his only unusual'sensations wore a feeling of warmth in the region of the collar-. | bone -and an inclination to cough. [ -With the -end.- of- the sound in his j heart he walked the considerable distance between the operating theatre: and the 3!-ray room, cUmbing a flight r9^?^airi;,on'"the'\wa^--;;T)ie_'loperati6n, "howeve^",' Bad" no injurious consequences whatsoever, and Dr. Forssmann; haY sinc.e.^used with -at least, temporary success; in a case" of peritoneal inflamma-tion-'in'.which the-patient was on the point of death: ■■■.-■■•■

. In" this instance the tube remained in the heart for 6§ hours without obvious .prejudicial effect either there or in the . yoin'. . 'he., doctor, .claims that his method o.f.cardiac administration is at any-rate preferable tothat, occasionally employed, of opening -up the chest and cutting: -through the • muscle of the heart.; . \