A Connection From the Heart
As if our hearts were not already connected to the C.S. Mott Children’s
Hospital, your story “Re-Creating Mott” in the spring 2006 issue
of Medicine at Michigan reminded us how very fortunate we are to have
a hospital of this magnitude nearby.
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| Mike McLaren with Kim Hoard, one of his favorite Mott nurses |
Last fall, I accompanied my husband, Michael, through the next chapter of his
medical-miracle life. He was born in the 1940s at a time when Johns Hopkins
doctors — pediatrician Dr. Helen Taussig, and surgeon Dr. Alfred Blalock
— were performing the first experimental open heart surgeries on blue
babies. (The initial surgery is documented in a recent PBS movie, “Partners
of the Heart,” and an HBO movie, “Something the Lord Made.”)
Michael was not the first to undergo their historic procedure; however he is
one of only a few survivors with such longevity. Johns Hopkins saved his life,
but without Dr. Herbert Sloan and the Mott Children’s Hospital, this man
who was never supposed to live to be 2, would never have lived well beyond age
52.
In 1977 Johns Hopkins referred Michael to Dr. Sloan for a complicated heart
procedure dubbed “total correction.” For 12 hours Dr. Sloan’s
dedicated team patched holes, removed the Blalock-Taussig shunts and created
new passageways in Michael’s heart. Under the impression that this reconstruction
would last a lifetime, Michael was taken by surprise when he found out recently
that he would need more surgery. He reminded U-M cardiovascular specialist Dr.
Julie Kovach that he had undergone “total correction.” “Yes,”
she replied, “but back then they didn’t know how to fix everything
they fix today, and they thought you would live only another 10 years.”
The real meaning behind her words was not lost on him. He had outlived their
prediction by nearly 20 years!
Today he is doing well and is back to work as an educator. For decades he has
shared excerpts from his amazing story with his students. He is honored whenever
one of them pursues a career in medicine because of his experiences. You will
be happy to know that sometimes these students even walk among you.
It was a bit surreal to be an adult in the Mott Children’s Hospital, but
it was where Michael needed to be. It was a touching experience, one that we
will never forget. Thank you to all who made his recovery possible.
Karen McLaren
Auburn Hills, Michigan
karenmclaren@comcast.net
Intellectual Property Theft?
The article on cultural beliefs toward death in the spring issue was interesting
to me not so much for its content as it was for the theft of the title from
Sherwin Nuland’s fine book, How We Die. Nowhere is it mentioned
that you clearly borrowed the title from him, and nowhere is it attributed.
It seems to me that the recent publishing scandals (e.g., Little Brown and Vizwinathan)
ought to make a scholarly publishing business at least sensitive to the subject
of plagiarism.
While this is a relatively minor transgression, the line is progressively blurred
by such theft. I have written several books, and I consider the entire content
to be mine. If people in university publishing cannot do better, what is plagiarism?
Richard Rapport (M.D. 1969)
Seattle, Washington
rapport.r@ghc.org
As an academic institution, we share your sensitivity about intellectual property rights and appreciate you raising this point. Sherwin Nuland’s groundbreaking book, How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter (Knopf, New York 1994), is a powerful and compassionate work that has brought into the public forum a once taboo and still uncomfortable topic common to all of us. Our use of the generic language as a headline to our story (spring 2006, page 13) was intended as a testament to Dr. Nuland’s invaluable contributions to public discussions about how we die. Use of the full title of Nuland’s work, or any of the book’s content, would certainly warrant and receive attribution. In using a portion of the title, we intended no theft, and apologize for any perception that it occurred.
