European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 9, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Gratia of Saph Enous vein from leg bypass artery restoring Saph Enous vein grafts coronary bypass was everybody heart and it was being fixed by Richard Severo new York times for Everton the decision to undergo the Rigours of coronary bypass surgery was not that he had had three heart attacks since one of them a cardiac arrest that almost killed angina the persistent Chest pains that Are symptomatic of an impediment in the coronary arteries plagued and the two or three nitroglycerine tablets he took each Day did him Little his partially blocked arteries were simply not carrying enough of the blood his heart needed to remain the 52yearold retired civil servant from already had undergone surgery for removal of a Malig Nant tumor in his the idea of permitting a Surgi Cal team to Cut through his sternum with a enter the rib Sanctuary where the heart and lungs Are Stop both organs for an hour or so and entrust his life to a hear lung want something he but Kirkland came to the conclusion that it was the Only thing to his condition was such that he could not live life on his own modest i like to Cut the carry out the Wash my help with the but i had reached the Point where i was not sure what 1 could and could not obstructions in coronary arteries impede nourishing blood flow to heart Aorta circumflex Diagonal obstructed coronary arteries right coronary Arter left Anterior depending new York times Nicholas Kouchoukos of the University of Alabama doing bypass surgery on the heart of Everton and last Kirkland became one of americans who had coronary bypass surgery last and one of 800 who had it done in the quarterback Tower of the University of Alabama hospitals in Bir although there Are physicians who contend Cor onary bypass surgery has been nobody disputes that in certain cases it has proved the surgery was started at the Cleveland but Alabama is regarded As among the leaders in the produce both in Quality in numbers of operations per Kirkland was rolled into the operating room at he was groggy but managed a smile As nurses gently Slid him from his Stretcher onto the operating room preparations for the operations had begun an hour or so nurses had brought sterilized Pale Green sterilized tables and plastic sheets into the White room with the dark they had created an Island of sterility under the three big movable operating room As they technicians called per unionists were Down the Hall building their care fully applying the fittings and threading plastic tub ing through the pumps that would soon become the patients heart and they brought the hear lung machine in soon after the patient almost As soon As Kirkland was on the operating his body was covered with an iodine based two separate applications were made to minimize the risk of transducers were applied to both the right and left sides of his Chest so that monitors could constantly record his systolic and diastolic left and right arterial pressures and his temperature in degrees Centi Grade during and immediately after the Nicholas professor of surgery at the University of Alabama school of Medicine and the principal surgeon for Kirk lands was not there he was doing another coronary bypass in a nearby operating one of three he would do that but much had to be done before Kouchoukos could attempt the by nine people were preparing the patient a total of 11 would participate before it was Yves Leclerc of a trainee in cardiovascular exposed a vein in Kirk lands left in which a Catheter would be placed to facilitate whatever infusions might be needed by the patient during by Leclerc was applying a saw longitudinally to Kirk lands in order to expose his heart and the saw worked at about the same another assistant was methodically making an incision from above the left ankle i the left to Lay Bare the Saph Enous which would be removed from the leg and used As a substitute for Kirk lands clogged coronary by the incision stretched from the ankle to the Groin area and the assistant was removing the the assistant marked the veins entire length with a surgical Felt pen containing Blue indelible soon the vein would become a coronary artery and care had to be taken that it not be and thus in the grafting the Blue line would help the surgeon avoid once the vein was kept fresh in a special removal of the vein would not impair body the Saph Enous vein is the vessel commonly re moved in varicose vein All this the hear lung machine was hum cycling a Saline priming ready for use at but the machine had not received any of Kirk lands nor was it taking Over any bodily function for the machine would Only be used during the actual bypass when the heart would be it would not be used a minute More than since blood left to Recycle for More than two or three hours could be shortly after 10 Kouchoukos arrived and found nothing he had not the heart was moderately the heart attacks had destroyed part of the Anterior Wall of the left Ven and had left behind scarring in the left ventricle a couple of Millimetres Kouchoukos would remove 4he scar before the patient was hooked up to the he was Given an injection of an anticoagulant that minimizes chances that the blood will clot while it is being re channelled through the hear lung with Little Kirk lands body temperature was using the heat exchanger on the machine which circulates cold water around the Kouchoukos clamped the and the heart was stopped with an injection of a solution of potassium chlo Cooling the body substantially reduced the oxygen requirements of the and the stilled heart gave Kochockos the stable Field he needed for his before the operation Kirk lands temperature Ifould be brought Down to 26 degrees 11 degrees below if it had been the body could have been made perhaps As Low As 18 or 20 degrees Kouchoukos grafted the Saph Enous vein around the and it took the place of two useless the Island of sterility became an abstraction of Blue rocked men and women surrounded by Green sheets and an operation that might make one squeamish if seen through the Lens of a camera was not grisly at All on the seventh floor of the quarterback they were working on Kirk lands but in the silence and in the precision of it the heart became an it was anybody everybody heart and it was being the vein was sewed onto the arteries with a monofilament synthetic suture and tacked to the backside of the so that it made a gentle curve and would not there was a great Deal of communication Between members of the operating but few words were darting eyes seemed exaggerated above the masks everyone not once did Kouchoukos have to ask for an instrument it was waiting for him before his hand even began to it was rather like a chamber group playing a familiar Mozart by 11 the hear lung machine was increasing Kirk lands temperature and his heart began to beat Spon the potassium Chloride solution had worn the warming of his body prompted his heart to resume what it had been doing for 52 like most he had required no since the hear lung machine oxygenated his blood and cleansed it of Carbon and did so without losing Kirkland was taken off the machine after 42 before his Chest was laced together with stainless steel wire and he was on his Way to a bed in intensive two floors eleven Days he was Dis the operation was not without on very rare 1 the surgery has caused strokes and subsequent neurological i now recuperating at says he 1 feels pretty except for the surgical i which pain him As much As did the shrapnel woulds he received in the angina is completely i am sore where they Cut but in and if i had to do it Over i he there Are a great Many people like Kirkland who not Only survive coronary bypass surgery but say the trauma is Worth the mortality from coronary bypass sur Gery is less than according to a study reported in the new England journal of at the University of the risk is less than 1 according to John chairman of the department of Grid team prayer in Tennessee by Wendell Rawls new York times leading 13 to 0 with a Quarter to but feeling the momentum fading in their quest for a second consecutive Tennessee state football championship members of the Oak Ridge High school offensive unit did what came they Knelt Midfield and at least the past few members of the football team have done considerable they prayed before each practice and they prayed before at games and after j acting on an inquiry from the school adm Nistra which had received a complaint from a ten lessees attorney general issued an opinion that group prayers at the sports practices of Public schools violated the principle of separation of Church and state under the first an uproar not Only in East Tennessee but throughout the some coaches invited their support ers to their teams break the Law Friday others made a Point of leading a group prayer before and after such exhibitions of Defiance and Independence Are not unusual in the South and especially not in East with its fiercely proud Mountain people who mean it when they say they Are Oak Ridge High school is the Public school in the state most Likely to House dissenters against such Oak which did not exist before world War is where the atomic bomb was it is perhaps unlike any other City in the the sprawled Lengthwise along Hills of scrub Cedars and is Home to some residents As Well As three major facilities for nuclear research and production operated for the government by Union car bide the controversial Clinch River breeder re actor offices of the department of Energy and 20 other research oriented private the nuclear facilities employ about of whom More than have doctoral the other operations also employ so Many people with advanced degrees according to a school we dont Call anybody doctor around Here unless he can put you in the the natives have always resented the outside scientists to some and have been suspicious of the secret nature of their the Story is told at Oak Ridge of the local Man who was upset about the mysteries surrounding the making of the atomic bomb and quit his protest you Are wasting too much Money Down his Foreman pointed out that since he did not know what was being he could not know whether the Money was being i dont care what it the local Man from the Money they Are spending to make i know it would be cheaper for the government to buy it already the children of the scientists and engineers make up a sizable part of a Public school system that is the envy of the rest of the it ranks at or near the top in every testing and statistical Survey according to the school Robert is significantly above the National average in those in a recent five year Oak Ridge High school had 28 National Merit scholars and 143 seven to five percent of the graduating seniors go on to College each it is not said who has a doctorate and is a native of that Oak Ridge Stu dents know and understand the ask questions about what goes on and express their the school dropped its pregame invocation two years ago after numerous parents Smallridge he predicted that appropriate action would be taken on the team prayer the question of team prayers was raised by Arvin whose two sons attended the High both have graduated and was the state Champion pole vaulter last the other was a state decathlon quist said that his boys were disturbed about twice Day prayers at football practice and prayers on the track i teams i he said that coaches urged the praying As a promotion of togetherness and that peer pressures forced the players to join a waited until last summer to ask the school authorities about the constitutionality of the team prayers because i didst want to adversely affect my and because i thought the school authorities could Settle the matter while no teams were but the school Board forwarded the inquiry to state attorney general William who did not Issue an opinion until the championship playoffs were under in the Wake of the quist has received threaten ing phone in their pregame preparations for their Germantown High school of the Oak Ridge players assembled for calisthenic in the for mation of a the team was in the same forma Tion before the beginning of the second coach Emory Hale said that the formation was Intel and while he was conferring with referees before the his team gathered for a prayer on the Field As its fans offered a standing Hale wore an Orange which he said stands for Christ above after the which his team won 130 for its Sec Ond straight state championship and its third since he asked both teams to take a knee and he led them and their fans on the Field in Page 14 the stars and stripes january 1981 the stars and stripes Page 15