Dr. Weinstein Gives Own Blood to Save 8-Year-Old Patient

[Math Is Hard]

Doc Stops Surgery to Give Own Blood to Patient

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP)—A top New York heart surgeon who was doing a mercy-mission operation on an 8-year-old boy in El Salvador had to scrub out in the middle of the procedure so he could donate his own rare-type blood to the patient.

Dr. Samuel Weinstein said he had his blood drawn, ate a Pop-Tart, returned to the operating table and watched as his blood helped the boy survive the complex surgery.

In the May 11 operation, which had begun 12 hours earlier at Bloom Hospital in San Salvador, the boy's failing aortic valve was replaced with his pulmonary valve and the pulmonary valve was replaced with an artificial valve.

"The surgery had been going well, everything was working great, but he was bleeding a lot and they didn't have a lot of the medicines we would use to stop the bleeding,'' Weinstein said. "After a while they said they couldn't give him blood because they were running out and he had a rare type.''

"We realized he might bleed to death, so I asked what blood type he was and they said he was B-negative and I said, "You know, I'm B-negative.''

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/ap_060526_doc_blood.html

 

[Markjdb]

Wow...quite impressive...

 

[Mk]

Greatly admirable, I'm glad we have people like that. Who am I kidding? I would have done the same thing... although I have A-.

 

[cronxeh]

Greatly admirable, I'm glad we have people like that. Who am I kidding? I would have done the same thing... although I have A-.

me2 for both. same type

speaking of which.. you can donate red blood cells for any blood type, instead whole blood (plasma included, which has the antibodies)

 

[Danger]

That's what being a real doctor is all about, as opposed to those who are in it for the bucks. As long as someone was capable of looking after things for the brief while that he was out of service, then it was definitely the right thing to do. Even if the patient had to be left unattended for that same brief while, the possibility of saving his life versus the certainty of his bleeding to death, still made it the right thing. Hats off to medical professionals.
And I have the good fortune to be O-, so I can donate to anyone.

 

[Math Is Hard]

The story reminded me of those old MASH episodes. The docs had to find ways to "make do" or come up with creative solutions in dire situations.

 

[Danger]

Yeah. I remember the episode where BJ 'invented' the open-heart defibrillator with a couple of salad tongs and a power supply. That impressed me so much that I've been afraid to look it up and find out whether or not it was really a MASH unit surgeon who came up with it.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Yeah. I remember the episode where BJ 'invented' the open-heart defibrillator with a couple of salad tongs and a power supply. That impressed me so much that I've been afraid to look it up and find out whether or not it was really a MASH unit surgeon who came up with it.

oh yeah, I think I vaguely remember that one -- that, and the time Hawkeye did the tracheotomy with the empty fountain pen.

Have you ever watched MASH, cronxeh?

 

[Pyrrhus]

Beautiful News!. Definetly Inspirational

 

[jimmydelgado777]

AB+

That's admirable. There's good karma coming his way

 

[Lyuokdea]

who starts an aortic transplant surgery on a patient without first making sure that there is a ton of blood in the patients blood type available for use?

~Lyuokdea

 

[franznietzsche]

who starts an aortic transplant surgery on a patient without first making sure that there is a ton of blood in the patients blood type available for use?

~Lyuokdea

Someone who's doing it in a third world country where there is no option?

 

[Math Is Hard]

Someone who's doing it in a third world country where there is no option?

No doubt. It was a mercy mission after all.

 

[cronxeh]

oh yeah, I think I vaguely remember that one -- that, and the time Hawkeye did the tracheotomy with the empty fountain pen.

Have you ever watched MASH, cronxeh?

Was that post referring to me or Danger? Edit: btw MIH you can do tracheostomy with your finger if need be, no fancy stuff needed to save a life there.

Btw Danger I don't know how things work in Canada but in US docs don't make enough. Considering average doc makes 90-130 k a year, pays 25-30k in malpractice insurance and another 10k in student loans for at least 10 years, and pays at least 20k in taxes, its safe to assume that an average physician makes less money than an engineer who graduated college same year as the doc, not to mention residents work 80 hours a week and don't get paid 90k for at least 8 years after their Bachelors - as far as surgeons are concerned they work even more and get paid accordingly. Its the people who have a grabby mentality and sued the doctors over the years hiking up the malpractice insurance costs who are the problem in this society. Greed, Welfare, Bums, and Prostitutes is what's wrong with America today. Oh and don't give me the whole 'they are homeless because they can't find a job' crap. I only have HS degree and make 30k a year just by being useful. I drive an ambulance, big woop. Not once did they ask if I had 90 college credits (which I do).

 

[Danger]

What brought that on?

 

[cronxeh]

What brought that on?

Should've plucked this in:

That's what being a real doctor is all about, as opposed to those who are in it for the bucks.

Whos in it for the bucks? If you want bucks you become a lawyer or real estate agent, not a doctor. Everyone knows that.

 

[Moonbear]

Yeah. I remember the episode where BJ 'invented' the open-heart defibrillator with a couple of salad tongs and a power supply. That impressed me so much that I've been afraid to look it up and find out whether or not it was really a MASH unit surgeon who came up with it.

Nope, someone at Johns Hopkins did. You got me curious enough to look it up.
http://www.geocities.com/neveyaakov/electro_science/kouwenhoven.html

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I don't want to take anything away from this great doctor who apparently has gone to El Salvador as a act of charity and probably is not making the big bucks he can get at home. But ... There is no way I would be 12 hours into an operation to save someone's life and then watch it fail for lack of a pint of my own blood. My guess is that the doctor would have given the blood even if he wasn't doing the operation. But then there would be no story.

 

[Danger]

If you want bucks you become a lawyer or real estate agent, not a doctor. Everyone knows that.

Hence the allusion to 'real' doctors. You're obviously not well acquainted with the slash-and-burn side of cosmetic surgery.

 

[BobG]

oh yeah, I think I vaguely remember that one -- that, and the time Hawkeye did the tracheotomy with the empty fountain pen.

Have you ever watched MASH, cronxeh?

Some MASH fan you are!

Father Mulcahey performed the tracheotomy with a pen and his pocket knife (I admit, even I don't get top rankings on my MASH trivia - I don't even remember what type of pocket knife he used ).

Hawkeye gave instructions over the radio.

 

[scorpa]

Some MASH fan you are!

Father Mulcahey performed the tracheotomy with a pen and his pocket knife (I admit, even I don't get top rankings on my MASH trivia - I don't even remember what type of pocket knife he used ).

Hawkeye gave instructions over the radio.

Haha I thought it was actually Father Mucahey! He did it with the soldier on the front rack of the jeep, and I think Radar (or Klinger?) was with him taking the instructions from Hawkeye and relaying the info back to him. Something like that anyway, I haven't seen that show in so long.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Shame on me. It WAS Father Mulcahey!