At first Mrs. Ina St. Romaine Ducasse had a hard time convincing herself she was still alive.
"I never thought I'd last through the operation," admitted the 58-year-old grandmother, f;
Mrs. Ducasse is in Charity, hospital recovering from very delicate surgery during which the surgeon literally squeezed clots from blood vessels of her lungs. It was the second time that such an operation was successfully performed in Louisi* ana.
Propped up in her hospital bed Wednesday, the patient said she spends most of her spare moments these days "thanking the Good Lord for sending me such a fine surgeon." TURNS BLUE
"He saved my life," Mrs. Ducasse announced with conviction. "I was scared, me. I looked down at my fingers and they were turning blue. Then I looked down at my toes and they were turning blue. So I said to the nurse, 'Please call a priest.' "
The sweet-faced grandmother said the doctors have promised her that she can return to her I home at 3201 Milan in about a week.
"I can hardly wait to see my grandchildren again," she added. "The oldest one is named Albert. He's five. Then there's Jeanne Marie. She's 15 months old. They wouldn't let them come to visit me in the hospital on account of germs. But my two boys, Earl and John St. Ger-maine, they came all the time. They're sons by a former marriage, and they both have grocery stores. Earl's store is uptown, and John's store is downtown."
Mrs. Ducasse said Feb. 4 she was operated on for a diseased gallbladder.
"I thought I was getting along fine. Then the day before Mardi Gras I blacked out," she recalled. "Just keeled right over."
JDr. Isadore Cohn Jr., who heads tjhe surgery department at Louisiana State University Medical school, said, "Actually, without warning, Mrs. Ducasse went into shock."
"Fortunately," he added, "our chief resident surgeon from LSU, Dr._William.Luga^kgi., was on the war¥~^TTIieume. He
started immediate measures to counteract shock. Then he ordered an electrocardiogram, a chest X-ray and certain essential laboratory studies."
The LSU surgical chief said physicians, studying the case, suspected either a heart attack or a pulmonary embolism — a condition in which a clot forms
in the major blood vessels of the lungs, stopping the flow of blood to the lungs.
"Since a pulmonary embolism can cause a patient to go into shock and since various tests indicated; an embolus, the physicians decided to verify their suspicions with the aid of an an-giogram," Dr. Cohn explained.
giogram," Dr. Cohn explained.
DYE IS,USED
The surgeon said dye was injected into the veins leading to the right side of the patient's heart; that, with the aid of the heart, this dye was pumped into I the pulmonary artery."
"At this Doint" he* added.
"multiple X-rays were taken of the lungs. The angiogram revealed that the patient had a big clot, with branches, in the right lung-a clot which was completely blocking circulation to the right lung. She also had a large
clot in the arteries of the left lung, which was blocking approximately half of the blood supply to this lung."
Dr. Cohn said:JUSU.physician} decided that, without surgery, Mrs. Ducasse probably could not live another 24 hours. He said that by this time the patient was really cyanotic, really ig blue.
Surgery was performed by Dr. Bert Glass, assistant pro-
fessor ' ery at the LSU
Medical School.
"It was the second time in history that such surgery had been successfully performed in Louisiana," Dr: Cohn explained.
'I think LSU is very fortu-I nate in having such a capable surgeon."
The head of the surgical department said ths surgery naturally involved use of a heart-jlung machine; that without the aid of such a machine, Mrs. Ducasse's operation probably would not have been possible.
CHEST OPENED "Dr. Glass opened the pa-
tient's chest with an incision right through the breast bone," Dr. Cohn explained. "Mrs. Du-casse's heart was then connect-
ed to the heart-lung machine, which took over the function of the heart and the lungs while the surgeon was busy opening up the arteries of the lungs and removing the clots from these arteries."
Dr. Cohn said the surgeon
squeezed each of the patient's
lungs, literally squeezing out
the offending clots.
: He said after the clots were
queezed put, the heart-lung
machine was removed and the
patient's own circulation was
reestablished.
Dr. Cohn said surgery was performed while the Proteus parade was passing along the streets of the city. He said he just; could not say enough; in praise of the Charity Hospital-LSU team who gave up their Carnival fun to help with the operation.
'■'.The X-ray people pitched in for us and worked overtime," he recalled, "Blood Bank technicians did a hurry-up job in setting up the blood which might be needed during surgery. Members of the operating room crew prepared the operating room in record time. And although the two LSU heart-lung machine technicians had already gone home, they returned immediately and stood by until time came for them to man the heart-lung machine pump. No parade for them that night. Practically everyone In town was having a holiday, and thanks to these unselfish people you might say that' this time Death also took a holiday."
Dr. Cohn said the same cooperation was shown on Mardi Gras day proper; that many persons attached to Charity voluntarily gave up their day of fun to look after Mrs. Ducasse. ...-, '. .
The LSU surgical chief said of 92 cases of pulmonary embolism reported recently half died within 10 minutes and only 12 lived more than 12 hours.
"I agree with Mrs. Ducasse,7 the surgeron added. "Someone up there certainly helped her." PHOTO: SURVIVING a rare emergency operation and recuperating at Charity Hospital is Mrs. Ina St. Romaine Ducasse, 58-year-old grandmother, who lives at 3201 Milan st.
