Famed Heart Surgeon Hits Restrictions by Government

              THE SHREVEPORT JOURNAL, SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CITY, LA., FRIDAY, FEB. 11, 1972
OUT IN FRONT — The U.S. is at least
10 years ahead of the Soviet Union in
heart research and surgical technique
according to Dr. Denton A. Cooley (right)
who recently visited Moscow. Dr. Cooley,
chief surgeon at the Texas Heart Insti-tute,
talks with Dr. Marion Hargrove
(left), head of the Department of Medi-cine
at the LSU M e d i c a l School in
Shreveport, before a d d r e s s i n g the
Northwest Louisiana Heart Assn. kick-off
dinner here T h u r s d a y . (Journal
Photo by Manuel Chavez)
Famed Heart Surgeon Hits
Restrictions by Government
By CARL LIBERTO
Journal Staff Writer
Dr. Denton A. Cooley, chief
surgeon at the Texas Heart
Institute, warned that federal
regulations on artificial de-vices
could "not only seriously
retard and cripple progress,
but would deny many deserv-ing
patients the help they
desperately need today."
The famed Houston heart
surgeon spoke to about 300
persons attending the Louisia-na
Heart Association, North-west
Unit, k i c k o f f dinner
Thursday at the Petroleum
Club. Many in the audience
have been operated on by Dr.
Cooley.
DR. COOLEY continued his
attack on unreasonable con-trols,
s a y i n g , "Government
controls carried to an unrea-sonable
extreme could stifle
progress, discourage investi-gators
and lead to a slow
death of medical and surgical
advancement."
"Cardiac surgeons are now
under constant threat that all
a r t i f i c i a l devices will be
placed under the direction and
control of the food and drug
bureau," Dr. Cooley said.
He cited as an example of
restrictions stifling surgical
advances in the U.S. the fact
that French surgeons were the
first to implant an atomic-powered
p a c e m a k e r in a
patient.
HE SAID the French sur-geon
who performed the im-plant
had been trained in the
U.S. and the atomic-powered
pacemaker was designed and
made by an American firm.
He said, "Because govern-ment
controls would not per-mit
a clinical application, the
atomic-powered pacemaker
made in the United States was
first used in a patient in
France."
Dr. Cooley has performed
more heart transplants than
any other surgeon and was
the first to utilize an artifical
device to keep a patient alive
for three days while awaiting
a donor for a transplant.
HE WAS formerly with the
Baylor School of Medicine in
Houston before helping found
the Texas Heart Institute in
Houston.
Dr. Cooley said he visited
Moscow recently and reported
the Russians are at least 10
years behind the U.S. in heart
research. He also noted that
the Red Chinese are even
farther behind in that area.
He said restrictions on sur-geons
and individuals in those
countries has stifled research
in heart disease and surgical
technique.
CITING THE fact that heart II
disease is America's number
one killer, Dr. Cooley said,
"Thousands of lives will be
saved or p r o l o n g e d when
hearts too damaged to keep
patients alive can be removed
and replaced by mechanical
substitutes."
N o t i n g that donors are
scarce and difficult to obtain,
he said. "A clinically usable
artificial heart would dispense
with the problem of finding
enough donors, m a t c h i n g
them for tissue compatibility
with the recipient, and provid-i
n g effective treatment to
prevent rejection."
Dr. Cooley said the human
heart is not an easy organ to
duplicate. "It will be expected
to pump continuously for up to
50 years without a breakdown.
It must be strong enough to
circulate the body's five to six
quarts of blood through 60,000
miles of arteries and veins
and, in a lifetime, move a
total of 65 million gallons of
liquid."
DR. COOLEY said that,
while we must be patient in
waiting for teart research
breakthroughs. "There comes
a time when all new tech-niques
and devices must be
taken from the animal labora-tory
to the hospital operating
room.
"If clinical trial of open
heart surgery, artificial heart
valves, pacemakers and coro-nary
bypasses had waited
until all investigators were
satisfied that thorough labora-tory
applications had been
made, we would have none of
those advances today."
"New techniques must be
tested in the laboratory. But
when they have reached a
state where clinical applica-tion
seems justified, let's not
keep them in the laboratory.
They cannot save human lives
if they stay in the laboratory.
Let's be more liberal, more
courageous in using them to
attempt saving the lives of
dying patients," he urged.
BEFORE DR. Cooley's ad-dress.
Mandel C. Selber,
Jr., Caddo H e a r t Fund
chairman, said the Northwest
Unit of the state heart asso-ciation
1972 goal is $53,000. He
said that 75 per cent of the
funds collected in the local
area stay in the local area to
support local heart fund pro-jects
including three heart
research grants at LSU Medi-cal
School in Shreveport.
The Northwest Unit of the
Louisiana H e a r t Assn. in-cludes
Caddo, Bossier, DeSoto
and Webster paristes.