I promptly added: “Send Michelle money every month.”
A few days later my brother wrote: “Make payments on car for Jason.”
Then my boyfriend joined in with: “Buy Tom a Jeep.”
Finally my father added a new goal to his amended list: “Wean kids.”
Blue baby operationIn 1944, the first “blue baby”operation was performed successfully at Johns Hopkins University by Dr. Alfred Blalock and pediatric cardiologist Helen B. Taussig. He devised the first subclavian-pulmonary artery anastomosis operation on the cyanotic (“blue-baby”) infant which had a hole in the wall between the heart's two major chambers (ventricles). The Blalock-Taussig shunt procedure joined an artery leaving the heart to an artery leading to the lungs, in an attempt to give the blood a second chance at oxygenation. Thousands of cyanotic children have been helped by the same operation until later surgeries repair the defect itself.«[Image: the Blalock-Taussig shunt shown after surgery on the heart.] |
