Although a biography of Dr Walt Lillihei, this is a medical story and history of cardiac medicine. Many people were key contributors.
Technical inventAlthough a biography of Dr Walt Lillihei, this is a medical story and history of cardiac medicine. Many people were key contributors.
Technical inventions:
Page 103 Heart Catheterization: Nobel Prize winner, Werner Forssmann, 1920s Berlin (Berlin Babylon era) did a heart Catheterization on himself. Climbed upstairs to radiology department took an X-ray to check whether or not the catheter was in the heart, almost passed out. Fellow doctors thought he had committed suicide.
Page 127 Anesthesia: Before anesthesiology was a named medical speciality, before ventilators, before pulse oximeters, and timely blood-gas analysis, after ether soaked rags were abandoned, other explosive gases were used (cyclopropane). One estimate in 1954, 130 explosions in American operating rooms, 30 were fatal. The worst accidents took out a doctor or nurse, as well as patients.
Heart Lung perfusion: Pages 130-131: Cross circulation with beer hose between parent and baby, was forerunner of machines. Page 170-171 Dewall/Lillihei bubble oxygenator, $15 Heart Lung perfusion machines.
Pacemaker: Page 196-197. In 1957 Earl Bakken, worked with Dr Lillihei to invent portable pacemaker. Eventually became Medtronic.
Data collection: Page 116-117. Dr Jesse Edwards pathologist at Mayo Clinic, had saved every heart from every autopsy since early in the century. Dr Edwards believed his collection of hearts belonged to science. Dr Lillihei and team, found 50 hearts with VSD (ventral septal defects). Page 118. The doctors had examined 50 hearts and found NO TWO WERE EXACTLY THE SAME. (Caps mine)
In the spring of 2020, like the rest of the world, I found out about Covid-19. Like many others I started making masks. Three design iterations and material scarcity work arounds (fabric, elastic, ties, nose pieces) we discovered ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL.
I am the beneficiary of this work and sacrifice having a VSD repaired in 1963.
**spoiler alert** pg 3 The genius of apartheid was convincing people who were the overwhelming majority to turn on each other. Apart hate, is what it **spoiler alert** pg 3 The genius of apartheid was convincing people who were the overwhelming majority to turn on each other. Apart hate, is what it was. You separate people into groups and make them hate one another so you can run them all.
pg 64 When my mother was 9 years old, she told my gran that she didn't want to live with her anymore. She wanted to live with her father. "If that's what you want", Gran said, "then go." Temperance came to pick up my mom up, and she happily bounded up into his car, ready to go and be with the man she loved. But instead of taking her to live with him in the Meadowlands, without even telling her why, he packed her off and sent her to live with his sister in the Xhosa homeland, Transkei--he didn't want her either. My mom was the middle child. Her sister was the eldest and firstborn. Her brother was the only son, bearer of the family name. They both stayed in Soweto, were both raised and cared for by their parents. But my mom was unwanted. She was the second girl. The only place she would have less value would be in China.
pg 75. Apartheid, for all its power, had fatal flaws baked in, starting with the fact that it never made any sense. Racism is not logical. Chinese people were classified as black. They were still Chinese. But unlike, Indians, there weren't enough Chinese people to warrant devising a whole separate classification. Interestingly, at the same time, Japanese people were labeled as white. The reason for this was that the South African government wanted to establish good relations with the Japanese in order to import their fancy cars and electronics.
pg77 My mother used to tell me, " I chose to have you because I wanted something to love and something that would love me unconditionally in return-- and then I gave birth to the most selfish piece of shit on earth and all it ever did was cry and eat and shit and say "Me, me, me, me, me."
pg 195 The name Hitler does not offend a black South African because Hitler is not the worst thing a black South African can imagine. Every country thinks their history is the most important and that's especially true in the West. But if a black South Africans could go back in time and kill one person, Cecil Rhodes would come up before Hitler, If people in the Congo could go back in time and kill one person, Belgium's King Leopold would come way before Hitler. If Native Americans could go back in time and kill one person, it would probably be Christopher Columbus or Andrew Jackson would come up before Hitler. Holocaust victims count because Hitler counted them. ....when you read through the history of atrocities against Africans, there are no numbers, only guesses. It's harder to be horrified by a guess...
pg 160 South Africa has eleven official languages. English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Ndelbele, Swazi, Tsonga, Venda, Sotho and Pedi.
pg 188 For the first time in my life I had money and it was the most liberating thing in the world. The first thing I learned about having money was that it gives you choices. People don't want to be rich. They want to be able to choose. The richer you are, the more choices you have. That's the freedom of money.
pg 190 People love to say, "Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime." What they don't say is, "And it would be nice if you gave him a fishing rod." Working with Andrew was the first time in my life I realized you need someone from the privileged world to come to you and say, "Okay, here's what you need, and here's how it works." Talent alone would have gotten me nowhere without Andrew giving me the CD writer. People say, "Oh, that's a handout." No. I still have to work to profit by it. But I don't stand a chance without it.
pg 207 Another nice thing about the hood was that it's super cheap. You can get by on next to nothing. For us the ultimate upgrade was to throw on a slice of cheese. Cheese was always the thing because it was so expensive. Cheese on anything was money. In any township in South Africa, if you had a bit of money, people would say. "Oh, you're a cheese boy." You're not really hood because your family has enough money to buy cheese. The hood made me realize that crime succeeds because crime does the one thing the government doesn't do:Crime cares. Crime is grassroots. Crime looks for the young kids who need support and a lifting hand. Crime offers internship programs and summer jobs and opportunities for advancement. Crime gets involved in the community. Crime doesn't discriminate.
pg 224 (Lessons learned from jail) We got out and everything was fine, but it rattled us. Every day we were out in the streets, hustling, trying to act as if we were in some way down with the gangs, but the truth was we were always more cheese than hood. We had created this idea of ourselves as a defense mechanism to survive in the world we were living in. Bongani and the other East Bank guys, because of where they were from, what they looked like--they just had very little hope. You've got two options in that situation. You take the retail job, flip burgers at McDonalds, it you're one of the lucky few who even gets that much. The other option is to toughen up, put up this facade. You can't leave the hood, so you survive by the rules of the hood. I chose to live in that world, but I wasn't from that world. If anything, I was an imposter. Day to day I was in it as much as everyone else, but the difference was that in the back of my mind I knew I had other options. I could leave. They couldn't.
Bookclub question: Why does Trevor know he has other options? See May 12, 2020 Wired article on Marcus Hutchins. Marcus Hutchins computer hacker parallel to Trevor Noah. ...more
How to make peace with a misbehaving body and live a mindful creative writers life. The lessons of DeSalvo's diary apply to not only writing, but creaHow to make peace with a misbehaving body and live a mindful creative writers life. The lessons of DeSalvo's diary apply to not only writing, but creative intellectual work.
Asthma triggers: Pollution. Exhaust fumes, particularly from diesel engines. Smoke. Perfume. Certain foods and herbs (shellfish, aged cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms and thyme) Nail polish remover. Hair spray. Sulfites, MSG. Preservatives. Aspirin. Paint fumes. Ink (newsprint; my printer). Cleaning fluid. Mold. Anything used by an exterminator. Rushing. Laughing. Fear.
pg 49: At first, I miss eating out. Soon though, I don't. And then a perfect, though simply prepared, dinner in our home, accompanied by a glass of special wine, becomes the high point of our day. But eating, now, if I pay careful attention, affords me the most intense pleasure I have, so I take my time with it. I appreciate, now, the look, the feel, the smell of ingredients. I now enjoy shopping for food and preparing it the way I once enjoyed going to a museum, a Broadway play, or a concert at Lincoln Center. I have found that paying attention to food can be deeply restorative. Cooking forces me to stop thinking about work, to put intellectual work into it's proper perspective. Nothing, after all, can please the way a fabulous pasta can.
And, as I say often, life is too short to have even one bad meal. Asthma has taken much from me---but asthma has given me this.
pg 29 Virginia Woolf in her diary wonders, always, not when she'll be well, but when she'll be well enough to work---an essential difference, I understand now that I myself have a chronic illness. For what I learned from Woolf's diaries is that if one works despite illness, and through illness, then one can restore one's sense of self-worth, so deeply challenged by the experience of illness. Have adapted Virginia Woolf work schedule, adapted by Louise DeSalvo for my stay home Covid schedule.
pg 90: Woolf wrote 3 uninterrupted hours a day, from ten to one. Sometimes she stole a few minutes from whatever creative project she was writing to pen an entry into her writer's diary, where she described what was happening in her life and also assessed her feelings about her work, monitored her progress, made schedules to ensure the completion of her books, dreamed new books, and worried about the reception of her publications. Sometimes she saw friends for lunch; often she didn't.
Afternoons, she did what she called the "donkey work" of a writer's life--typing what she had composed in the mornings, correcting proof, writing letters, reading for reviews. ..in the late afternoons she took very long walks, both to clear her head from the pressure of creative work, but also to think through puzzles or stumbling blocks in the work. (These walks, kept Woolf emotionally stable and depression-free for long periods of time. At the end of her life, Woolf was deprived of her walks. Woolf eventually became seriously depressed and killed herself). Evenings, Woolf saw friends or went to a concert or a play or later in life, listened to recordings on the gramophone.
Her creative work came first. And always, always, she assessed he impact of the way she was living her life on her productivity. If her writing was not going well enough because of too many social engagements, she cut back on her attendance at dinner parties....more
Collection of essays on aging by a practicing Zen Buddhist in Berkeley CA. Zen thoughts on aging with humor and dignity. Satisfying bedtime reading...Collection of essays on aging by a practicing Zen Buddhist in Berkeley CA. Zen thoughts on aging with humor and dignity. Satisfying bedtime reading.......more
Excellent. Great conclusion. I’m a Kotonk Sansei. My dads recommendation for a successful marriage and career was moving to another state getting awayExcellent. Great conclusion. I’m a Kotonk Sansei. My dads recommendation for a successful marriage and career was moving to another state getting away from parents and in-laws. A famous Hawaiian artist I knew would not marry his long term Chinese physician girlfriend because she came with big baggage. (Her entire extended family). Large Catholic families expected to sacrifice one child to the church as either a priest or nun. One child in large Japanese families was expected to sacrifice a personal life to take care of the parents. Problems develop when siblings don’t know they are the designated sacrificial kid. Tosh became the designated sacrifice, when his mother forced him to drop out at 15. Sawa, his mother forced him to sacrifice himself so his father could “save face” by not going back to plantation work.
I like American system. Children do not owe their parents, they did not ask to be born. What do parents owe their kids? An education, opportunities to develop so they can paddle their own canoes, self actualize, and become contributors to society. Didn’t know debts transferred from one generation to the next. “ Saving face” is a cultural practice to avoid taking responsibility for your mistakes, protecting your ego at other peoples expense, usually your wife and children pay.
Abraham Lincoln walked away from his father, didn’t return because his father hired him out as laborer. Children are not kerai (vassals)....more
I finished this in July about the time bookclub read Anna Burns Milkman. If you have wondered how hate, and grudges are passed from one generation to I finished this in July about the time bookclub read Anna Burns Milkman. If you have wondered how hate, and grudges are passed from one generation to the next this is a fine complement to Milkman. In Milkman there is a sort of happy ending. In Radden Keefes book there are no happy endings, just survival. ...more
Best argument for allowing women in "combat" roles. Units which include women have less violence against women. Not allowing women in "combat" units mBest argument for allowing women in "combat" roles. Units which include women have less violence against women. Not allowing women in "combat" units maybe an excuse to deny them combat pay. ...more
I no longer the harbor the smallest doubt about the existence of evil in individual human beings. There is no floor for evil in human behavior. Is genI no longer the harbor the smallest doubt about the existence of evil in individual human beings. There is no floor for evil in human behavior. Is genocide is kinder than torturing children? Cannibalism has a purpose....more
A series of reflective essays written by native Denverite, Rocky Mountain News Columnist, Gene Amole just before he died. Gene belonged to an organizaA series of reflective essays written by native Denverite, Rocky Mountain News Columnist, Gene Amole just before he died. Gene belonged to an organization called the Highlander Boys in the Highlands neighborhood of North Denver while he was growing up, between ages 8 and 16. George Olinger who founded the organization was a mortician. Gene credits the "Highlanders as having a profound effect on this life.
Highlander Prayer said each night at bedtime.
Oh God, my father and my friend, teach me to be a true Highlander and a Christian gentleman. Help me to think pure thoughts than I may be a clean man. Help me to keep my body pure that I may use it to serve Thee. Help me be truthful that I may sing thy praise. Help me to be honest that I may win the confidence of men. Help me to build a Christian character that I may be worthy of those who love me. Teach me to respect all women as I do my mother. Make my life one of service, and when I am tempted, May I sit humbly at the foot of the cross and look up to Thee for strength. Amen
Any man with 2 ex-wives, a current wife and all the children and their mothers get along is remarkable. Whatever he's doing should be bottled and spraAny man with 2 ex-wives, a current wife and all the children and their mothers get along is remarkable. Whatever he's doing should be bottled and sprayed on politicians.
The man lets his body tell him when to exercise. A Buddhist word to describe Willie Nelson is sentient. He is in tune internally to himself, and he listens.
What he describes about being a songwriter artist applies to all types of artists regardless of medium.
Zainab Salbi, and her family grew up as part of Saddam Hussein's (Amo) inner circle and lived in a Hussein's compound.
pg 24: Today, the principal theZainab Salbi, and her family grew up as part of Saddam Hussein's (Amo) inner circle and lived in a Hussein's compound.
pg 24: Today, the principal theological difference between the two sects is that Shia theologians tend to accept the necessity of continuously applying independent reasoning to contemporary life while Sunni Theologians are more comfortable relying on doctrines established centuries ago by religious scholars who established 4 different schools of Sunni thought.
pg 207: Amjad's adviser, Dr Sachedina was the imam, who was to perform our Islamic wedding and help with the marriage contract. Amjad and I had already discussed the dowry and had agreed that it was to be symbolic, a single gold coin from Jerusalem. "Zainab, you have a lot more rights to discuss besides the dowry, Zainab. You need to put down all your conditions." ...People don't know Islamic law, and they assume cultural practices stem from Islam. When a woman marries in Islam, she has the right to stipulate all the conditions she wants to have in her marriage. Then, the husband needs to sign if he agrees to those conditions. This is your chance to put in whatever conditions you choose as part of your contract for marrying Amjad. Anything I want? Anything from the kind of lifestyle you want to the way you want to raise your children. A kind of prenuptial agreement.
Here's my computer, Zainub..."Just type in all your conditions for the marriage contract, and if Amjad agrees, they're binding. Good luck.
She types: "You may not stop me from pursuing any career or educational path." "You must share with me all household duties fifty-fifty. You must do half the cooking, you must do half the cleaning..." "I want to share the right to initiate divorce."
Changes to the Islamic marriage contract are allowed after you are married.
Zainub makes a decision to become a "strong woman" instead of a "good wife."
Congratulations Zainab Salbi, you seem to be well on your way to reaching Maslow's self-actualization peak....more
Many Thanks Margot Shetterly for spending six years writing this book. Good job on the screenplay.
Best lines: Page 180: 1948 Dorothy Lee was asked by aMany Thanks Margot Shetterly for spending six years writing this book. Good job on the screenplay.
Best lines: Page 180: 1948 Dorothy Lee was asked by a local press reporter "Do you believe that women working with men have to think like a man, work like a dog, and act like a lady?" "Yes, I do," she answered.
Page 200: Levi Jackson winner of the 1960 Virginia Soap Box Derby" What do you want to be when you grow up? "I want to be an engineer like my mother."
Page 204: Robert Kennedy commenting in 1963 on school segregation "The only places on earth known not to provide free public education are Communist China, North Vietnam, Sarawak, Singapore, British Honduras----and Prince Edward County, Virginia.
Wisdom : Page 196 Mary Jackson: The deep humanitarianism that was her family inheritance had taught her to see achievement as something that functioned like a bank account, something you drew on when you were in need and made deposits to when you were blessed with a surplus.
Page 220 Katherine Johnson: Simple luck is the random birthright of the hapless. When seasoned by the subtleties of accident, harmony, favor, wisdom, and inevitability, luck takes on the case of serendipity. Serendipity happens when a well-trained mind looking for one thing encounters something else;the unexpected. It comes from being in a position to seize opportunity from the happy marriage of time, place and chance. It was serendipity that called her in the countdown to John Glenn's flight.
page 247: Epilogue: There is something about this story that seems to resonate with people of all races, ethnicities, genders, ages and backgrounds. It's a story of hope, that even among some of our country's harshest realities-legalized segregation, racial discrimination-there is evidence of the triumph of meritocracy, that each of us should be allowed to rise as far as our talent and hard work can take us.
page 248: Damage to Apollo 13 computers were out. Astronaut Jim Lovell used an even simpler calculation to tack his spaceship toward home, lining up the ship's optical sight with Earth's terminator, the line dividing the side of Earth that was in daylight from the shadow side, in nighttime. It was serendipitous that Lovell had taken the technique for a test run on Apollo 8 and knew how to make the calculations. What seemed like a routine check on a previous mission would save the crew's lives this time around. No one knew better than Katherine Johnson that luck favored the prepared.
pg 263: Dorothy Vaughn "What I changed, I could; what I couldn't, I endured.
Encounter with Nichelle Nichols, Lt Uhura and Dr Martin Luther King Jr convincing her to stay with Startrek show....more
Everything Stegner writes is autobiographical in origin. A beautifully crafted story about an old man wrestling with his age, his marriage, and his paEverything Stegner writes is autobiographical in origin. A beautifully crafted story about an old man wrestling with his age, his marriage, and his past. Stegner is my favorite Western writer. Western writers seem free to choose their own controls, unlike Southerners. I'm thinking Pat Conroy.
pg 63 "I can't see that Danish episode as an adventure, or crisis survived, or a serious quest for anything definable. It was just another happening like today's luncheon, something I got into and got out of. And it reminds me too much of how little life changes; how, without dramatic events or high resolves, without tragedy, without even pathos, a reasonably endowed, well-intentioned man can walk through the world's great kitchen from end to end and arrive at the back door hungry."
pg 26 Regret and guilt are selfish and secret emotions.
pg 34 After her husband dies suddenly on the ship...."And a strange thing:now that she is stricken, people avoid her more than they did when she was only cowlike and uninteresting. Me too. Ruth sat by her for an hour and tried to talk to her, but I couldn't. What would I have said? I thought her husband foolish and bigoted and dull, and now that he is dead it would be hypocrisy to pretend differently. I would like to be able to suffer fools more gladly."...more
pg 150: He had a Minnesotan's admiration for resourcefulness in the face of hardship, bred by generations of people one very bad winter away from starpg 150: He had a Minnesotan's admiration for resourcefulness in the face of hardship, bred by generations of people one very bad winter away from starvation and cannibalism.
pg 163: I'm a loser for believing in all the promises your America made to people like me. You came and said we were friends, but what we didn't know was that you could never trust us, much less respect us. Only losers like us couldn't have seen what's so obvious now, how you wouldn't want anyone for your friend who actually wanted to be your friend. Deep down you suspect only fools and traitors would believe your promises.
pg 215: I had hit him where it hurt, in the solar plexus of his conscience, where everyone who was an idealist was vulnerable. Disarming an idealist was easy. One only needed to ask who the idealist was not on the front line of the particular battle he had chosen.
pg 190: They believe in a universe of divine justice where the human race is guilty of sin, but they also believe in a secular justice where human beings are presumed innocent. You can't have both. You know how Americans deal with it? They pretend they are eternally innocent no matter how many times they lose their innocence. The problem is that those who insist on their innocence believe anything they do is just. At least we who believe in our own guilt know the dark things we can do.
Doesn't explain the rise of Trump so much as the fall of Clinton. JD had the emotional intelligence to take the opportunities open to him and recognizDoesn't explain the rise of Trump so much as the fall of Clinton. JD had the emotional intelligence to take the opportunities open to him and recognize help offered. An ego inflated by media/consumerism prevents many immature people from recognizing help offered. It is difficult to help kids when the parents spend their scarce resources on iPads, 4 big screen TV's birthday parties, leather sofas and cell phones instead of paying electricity, water, insurance, mortgage, new cars and programmable calculators.
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