One of the most emotionally striking moments of my life was March 10th 1981 when I spoke with Mary Gohlke. The amazing aspect was that the night before I had seen her laying on an operating table with her chest wide open and absolutely nothing in there. No heart, no lung just air and several surgical clamps and tubes. The only other person in this condition I ever saw was a corpse. You see Mrs Gohlke was the first person, in the world, ever to receive a combined heart lung transplant by Dr. Bruce Reitz assisted by Dr Norman Shumway(developed technique for heart transplant, that was stolen by Christian Barnard {another story}). You see I was a third year resident at Stanford Univ at the time and I was on call that fateful day and was in the operating room during one of the most amazing firsts in modern surgery.
While I have not read Mrs. Gohlke autobiography, "I'll take Tomorrow" I clearly remember the story of how it came about as told to the operating team that ground breaking night of March 9th 1981. You see Mrs. Gohlke was third in line on the transplant list and because of her pulmonary fibrosis she had months to live and was doomed to die before receiving her live saving transplant. If you remember the Television show Lou Grant you will remember Margaret Pynchon the strong headed publisher of the Los Angeles Tribune. Well Mrs Pynchon was fashioned after mrs Gohlke who was the real life publisher of the largest newspaper in Arizona. Shumway related that two weeks earlier she approached him with a deal. You see the first transplant was being held up by FDA approval of cyclosprorin A, a drug required to prevent rejection of the transplant. Mrs Gohlke, with very powerful political connections offered to get the drug approved quickly if she would be moved to the front of the list. Shumway felt he had nothing to loose as if she didn't get an expidited approval her and the two people above her on the list would die before the FDA approved the use of cyclosporin A for Heart-Lung transplant.
Well within one week she had gotten the approval and within 5 days of that she got her heart lung transplant. It was amazing to She her during surgery with her open chest cavity and then the next day see her sitting up in bed talking. It was one of the most surreal experiences in my life. She went on to live five years.
I decided to restart work on a memoir. In order to do this I created an outline of my life. I have put down all distinct instances I remember that I think might make an interesting story. These stories don't just tell what I did, but I try to tell the background and culturally interesting things related to the story. Therefore some of the stories may be 90 percent me and 10 percent background while others may be reversed. I hope that these stories not only give you a feel for snippets of my life,but a feel for the times and placed I have experienced. Many of these experiences no longer are available for you to experience in this world we have today. However,I hope you can enjoy them through my eyes. Anyone who knew me or had similar experiences please let me know how your memories differ from mine. Thanks and I hope you enjoy reading these. Please follow this blog.
