Caring for the Hearts of Children

I applaud Sally Pobojewski's story on the new cardiovascular center (fall 2003). This clinical and research enterprise is something we can, as a university, be very proud of. Clearly a single article cannot touch on all of the accomplishments of the cardiovascular program. One area that is frequently overlooked is the Michigan Congenital Heart Center (MCHC) at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.

The MCHC has established an international reputation for excellence in the care of infants and children with heart disease, as well as young adults who have survived with congenital heart disease. Congenital heart disease is the most common form of birth defect, occurring in eight out of every 1,000 live births. The MCHC is currently the largest congenital heart center in the Midwest and performs the second most open-heart surgeries for congenital heart disease in the country. Innovations from MCHC physician-researchers in the fields of interventional catheterization, echocardiography, electrophysiology, post-operative patient management and heart transplantation have helped drive the field forward. Additionally, basic science investigations focused on vascular biology and cardiac development are helping to uncover the mysteries of the development of congenital heart disease. A new fetal diagnostic center has recently opened, and fetal interventions are on the horizon. The fellowship training program, which currently has 13 fellows (soon to be 15), is one of the largest in the country.

The MCHC is proud to be a part of the Michigan Cardiovascular Center and feels that its presence makes the center a more formidable force in the battle against heart disease.

Peter Fischbach, M.D. (Residency 1999)
Assistant Professor
Director, Electrophysiology Laboratory
Division of Pediatric Cardiology

Given the sheer volume of outstanding initiatives in research, education and clinical care in the great institution that is the U-M Health System, we often must make hard choices about what we can feature at any given time. Readers interested in the open-heart surgery that takes place within the Michigan Congenital Heart Center may enjoy reading about Edward Bove, M.D. (Residencies 1977, 1979), one of the center's three cardiac surgeons, whose work was featured in the summer 2000 issue of Medicine at Michigan.

Memories of Life at Michigan

The fall 2003 issue of Medicine at Michigan sure brought back some memories.

The LIFE magazine photo of Barry Breakey, Tom Peterson and friends in the card room of the old Nu Sigma Nu fraternity house at 1015 East Huron prominently shows the back of my head. This will give you an idea of what I look like. Gil Ross, also of the Class of 1954, is on the left, so ours was the youngest class appearing in the picture.

Barry and accompanying characters made the Nu Sig house a special place, laugh after laugh. To give you an idea. three of them went to undergraduate rushing and introduced themselves as Frank Breech, Austin Flint, and a third medical term now lost to my memory. They wore gravy-stained coats and ties and complimented the fraternity brothers on the beautiful drapes. Carl Rauch, also in the picture, was an older, married WW II veteran who looked like a student's father more than a student. I smile whenever I look at that LIFE photo.

The articles about Ralph Straffon (such a timely piece, given his passing soon after) and Tom Peterson (pages 50 and 49, respectively) caused me to remember a third member of the distinguished Class of 1953 who played football while a freshman in medical school: Bill Bartlett. He was second-string quarterback. Bill is now a retired pediatrician in Madison, Wisconsin. Like Tom, Bill has played an important role in sports medicine, in Madison and throughout Wisconsin. He organized high school sports medical programs in Madison and worked hard to get the legislature to pass a law that allows M.D.s to serve at high school games without fear of lawsuits. Like Ralph and Tom, he is a wonderful guy — as well as my sons' pediatrician. Also from the Class of 1954, Ozzie Clark (Residency 1960) played with Ralph on the 1950 team as starting end. So, back then, Nu Sigma Nu included four members of the U-M football team studying at the medical school.

William L. Kopp
(M.D. 1954, Residency 1962)
Jackson, Mississippi

Nu Sigma Nu, founded in 1881, is the nation's oldest medical fraternity. Currently located on Geddes Avenue across from Nichols Arboretum, the fraternity's house accommodates 32 graduate students who today also include students from the schools of pharmacy, law, business, engineering and social work.

Medicine at Michigan with Morley

I always enjoy reading your excellent publication and particularly enjoyed the fall 2003 edition and the excellent article on George Morley, to which I can add the following personal notes.

Morley's mentor, Norman Miller, delivered my twin sister and me on June 9, 1935. George Morley delivered my son Douglas on April 7, 1958, and Douglas eventually trained under him in ob/gyn. Now Douglas has a gynecology practice in Chelsea, Michigan. Michigan, Miller and Morley hold an important place in our family's history.

Charlotte H. Portz
Horton, Michigan

Thank you for the profile of George Morley and his career. I truly love the man even though I haven't seen him in over 30 years. It is nice to see that he is well and getting the adulation he deserves.

When I was an upper-class medical student rotating through anesthesia I was given an "easy" case — a healthy young woman having a laparotomy, for which Dr. Morley was the surgeon. In those days we monitored only with temporal pulses and blood pressure, and used halothane. After the induction the attending dialed in a percentage of halothane and left to cover other rooms. The patient was probably too deeply anesthetized and a few minutes later I couldn't get a pulse or a blood pressure. I wasn't sure what to do (or worse, what I had done to the patient). I announced the problem to Dr. Morley and asked for the circulator to send for my attending, stat. Dr. Morley immediately stopped, put his hand into the cavity, then calmly said, "Relax, Peggy, I feel an aortic pulse."

After the attending came in, turned down the halothane and disappeared again (with me internally vowing I would never ever consider being an anesthesiologist), dear Dr. Morley, sensing my angst, kindly said, "Sit down and rest a minute and then we'll proceed," and stopped his operation briefly and chatted with the resident while I regained my bearings. Needless to say Dr. Morley has always occupied a very warm, fuzzy place in my heart.

And, oh, yes: I somehow ended up an anesthesiologist.

Margaret (Peggy) Zanotti Harrington
(M.D. 1971, Residency 1972)

Corrections
The fall 2003 issue of Medicine at Michigan mistakenly cited new Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases Chair Valerie Castle, M.D., as the David Murray Cowie Professor of Pediatrics. In actuality, Castle has been named to the Ravitz Foundation Professorship in Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases.

In "Class Notes," we reported that Joel Zrull (M.D. 1957, Residency 1961) received the Agnes Purcell McGavin Award for Distinguished Career Achievement in Child and Adolescent Psychology from the American Psychiatric Association. The award was, of course, in psychiatry, not psychology.