Show doctors Boc tois save filan who shot self in heart two surgeons mend smashed organ remove spleen in five hours philadelphia assisted by a family physician two young sur geons saved the life of a 24 year old man who had shot himself through the heart the victim walter wood of hoy roy elsford pa pe held a 32 caliber re volver at a downward angle above I 1 his heart as he sat on a bed and p billed the trigger the bullet smashed through the left ventricle veatric le df the heart he art itself the lium the sac containing the heart then obliquely down and through the upper and lower lobe lobes of the left ILU 1 0 9 the abdominal wall the stomach clot and the spleen the slug lodged self in a back muscle wood wa was removed a short time later o 0 and suffering from a loss of blood to phoenixville Phoenix ville hospital by his family physician dr carl jameson dr jameson immediately got in touch with dr robert E brant of Phoenix phoenixville ville an associate chief sur geon at the hospital and the latter summoned dr ralph R chera shore another surgeon on the hos pital staff because of wood a condition and necessary preparations including several blood transfusions the ac operation could not be started until later praises staff dr brant who performed the major part of the surgery spent the next five hours in mending wood a wounds he said that wood was saved only through the utmost cooperation on the part of the entire hospital staff as well as dr chera shore and dr jameson who per assisted him while reluctant to take credit for what he had done dr brant re marked that he had never seen anything like the extensive wound that wood had suffered dr bralit brant served 42 months in the navy medical corps during world war II 11 specializing in thoracic chest surgery and per formed surgery on many badly wounded cases while serving in the pacific area dr cherashore and dr jameson also saw war service with the army medical corps abroad bullet cut furrow in discussing the wood operation dr brant said the bullet had cut a deep furrow in the victim victims heart ventricle and the slug also had opened up several perforations in the interior of the heart itself he said that he had to remove two ribs before suturing of the wounds could be started and that sewing up of the heart ventricle was a tricky business since the heart muscle was jumping about at the rate of pulsations a minute after closing the heart wound he sewed up a hoid in the pericardium two holes in the lung two holes in the stomach and then removed the spleen which had been too badly damaged to be saved it was learned that wood when brought to the hospital was in a state of severe shock and cally it was this poor condition and the need of blood plasma that required a delay of several hours before the operation could be started one hospital attendant who had seen a number of severe bullet wound cases remarked later that people with a wound like wood s ordinarily die within a few nain min utes |