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"This is the story of my encounter with Dr. Blalock."
Submitted by: Patricia M., Beverly Hills, CA
This is the story of my encounter with Dr. Blalock and is an excerpt from my book Whispers from God, to be published in 2005. In 1948, at age eighteen, I was told I had a congenital heart defect, patent ductus arteriosis, caused by a valve that connects the two main arteries of my heart not closing at birth. Although sometimes short of breath, but otherwise okay, I would probably die in my twenties unless something could be done, the doctor said. I was told that surgeons could now, for the very first time, that very year, operate on a human heart. Dr. Blalock had pioneerd Blue Baby surgery I was told, and now there were five doctors in the United States qualified to do this kind of delicate surgery, one was at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco. It seemed impossible. I could not imagine that a heart could be operated on. When he examined me, my surgeon, Dr. Brody Stephens, distracted me by talking about catching the longest football pass in history at the University of California. He was kind and gentle. During one of my hospital stays, Dr. Blalock came to the ward where I was one of twenty-six patients, to reassure me. "You are a very lucky girl," he said, after listening to my heart. "We couldn't have helped you a year ago. The human heart has been a forbidden organ, thought too delicate to tamper with until this year." It was 1948. "Am I a guinea pig?" I asked, afraid it was so. "No, Patsy. You're a pioneer. The fellows hit by shrapnel in World War II were the guinea pigs. It was experiments with ways to remove shrapnel from the beating heart that lead to closed heart surgery. Like what you'll have." "One doctor called it blind surgery," I said, hoping for reassurance. "Well, yes, it's called that. But, Dr. Stephens knows what he's doing. Your operation will take about seven hours, and you'll be right as rain, within two months." "I'm ... I'm ... I'm afraid I'll die." I fought back tears. He put his stethoscope in the pocket of his white coat, and then held my cold hands in his warm clasp. "Patsy, you are not going to die. Early results were disastrous, with the majority of patients dying. But now with improved techniques and procedures, it's safe. You will be fine, I'm sure of it." I was afraid I would not survive the operation I had decided to risk. I was so scared I would die that I closed my eyes when we drove past cemeteries. After ten months, in and out of the hospital, where the treadmill test consisted of having me run up and down the back stairs of the hospital, and in spite of my morose mind-set, the operation was a success. I was told that out of the twenty people operated on, I was the tenth in the world to survive heart surgery. God must have wanted me to live. I've gone on to write five books and to found an international organization, Children as the Peacemakers. We have received the United Nations Peace Messenger Award and been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize. I have taken young kids on 34 trips around the world, giving them a voice in places of power, indeed, reaching hearts.
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