Surgery Blurs Life and Death

The Miracle on Ice - 1 - MSN Health & Fitness

NEW SURGERY BLURS LIFE AND DEATH . . . ABOUT OUR UNSUNG HEROES

Have your heart attack in Wake County North Carolina, is one of the useful items this msn columnist found in researching a new procedure that blurs life and death. Emergency teams in Wake County are the first to have mandatory hypothermic treatment for victims.

Yes, there's a new-OLD procedure for treating strokes that involves cooling the body for not just minutes, but hours -- or maybe just a gutsy enough surgeon willing to go with his common sense. I'm not mentioning his name, for a reason. He's the SUNG hero, but there's an UNSUNG hero in this story.

20 years ago induced hypothermia, as its called, was only used as a last resort, when there was really nothing to lose, like surgery on a stopped heart. The body would be chilled down to 18°C (about 64°F), scary, as there are potentially serious side-effects such as frostbite, shock, pneumonia, death.

How did we discover the use of this procedure?

It was thanks to Raul Busto, a research assistant at the University of Miami.

The wonder of this story is that the person who wrote the article found this tidbit, and thought to include it in his article. Raul didn't get to write an article about his finding for the glorious JAMA; he didn't get to speak to the convention of neurosurgeons; didn't get a promotion to head the department or have a chair at auniversity medical center named after him. I don't know the facts but he probably didn't even get a raise.

Busto, observant guy that he is, simply noticed that even when bloodflow was cut off to a section of the brain in certain rats, they didn't have a stroke, and this in rats whose body temps were only a few degrees below normal.

There are people who lack the credentials, by choice, by chance, or by lack of opportunity, who are making tremendous contributions to our lives all the time. The diagnosis by the grandmother down the street, the perceptive comment of the nail technician, a caring neighbor who just notices something, the mechanic tinkering in his garage or the nascent genius in the computer or medical lab.

New systems are suggested by such people, difficult diagnoses are made, procedures thought up, and lifes are changed all the time by the unsung hero -- the person with high EQ (which includes observation, focus and common sense).

It's a shame that we have a system set up where only the Ph.D.s and M.D.s get the recognition -- and are granted the veracity. I consult in offices and I often find the quiet suggestions of the smaller players are ignored and not listened to. Why should a lawyer listen to his secretary when she says they're getting milked by the website designer? No credentials. Why should the CEO listen to the marketing person who predicts a trend that is clearly going to effect future profits. Not her field. Why should the "suits" in Miami listen to a coach who says that cruise passengers would attend lectures on self-help, astrology or engineering? Because everyone in Miami "knows" that all ALL cruise passengers want to drink and gamble ... except for the coach who cruises a lot and listens to the actual people on a cruise ship, wondering about the ship's engines, the stars they see on the romantic nights, and, yes, Virginia, they do not leave their problems at home when they cruise -- they come right along with them, sometimes in person, sometimes in their thoughts and hearts and Nancy Fenn's self-help lecture drew 30 people. (If you want to lecture on a cruise ship, by my ebook - www.webstrategies.cc/ebooklibrary.html )

The first thing I did when I was sent to a troubled apartment complex, back in my property management days, was to interview the people who actually worked on the property daily, so were forced to apply common sense to the problems at-hand. The leasing agent, the maintenance man, even the mailman could tell me the simple truth, from their EQ and observations, that told me what the problems AND THE SOLUTIONS were. They made me look good. I had the credentials, but thank you Mildred Mannigan for greeting me at the door of Concord Square Apartments with, "If they would simply ____, this apt. complex would be full tomorrow. Will you please TELL someone." If you're the 'they' -- listen.

All sing the unsung hero. Wherever you are, Raul Busto, thank you. Thank you for all the lives that will be saved because of you. And thanks to the "suit" that listened to Raul when he told what he knew.

Now go out and apply this!

Study EQ with me - www.susandunn.cc/EQcourse.htm .