Syndication News Column:
Mother’s Day - 2020

(This image was provided courtesy of OpenClipart-Vectors through Pixabay.)

On this Mother's Day, you may want to read about how one woman - as a mother-to-be and then as a mother - was used to encourage nurses in their mission to save lives.

A book that I recently published, A Woman From Chadwicks, details the human side of the early heart surgeries that took place in the 1950s. How one doctor gave life to many and how one of those people made that life worth living.

The book details how this woman – my mother - underwent two heart surgeries in 1952 and 1958. The first was a closed-heart surgery where the doctor inserted his finger into the hole in her heart and stitched a thread around his finger. He did this without the ability to visually see his stitching. (Yes, you read correctly. The surgeon did not have the ability to see the stitches as he strived to repair the hole because the chest cavity was not fully opened during closed-heart surgery.) But the surgery in 1952 was in reality a medical procedure to keep this woman alive long enough for a new procedure to be developed more fully – open-heart surgery.

Complications followed that second heart surgery – an open-heart surgery – in 1958. My mother had to undergo a tracheotomy – her throat was cut open while wide awake with no anesthesia – because she needed to breath and the attending doctor acted quickly to again save her life. She was then immersed in a tank of ice after the tracheotomy. The goal was to lower her body temperature and allow her heart to slow down. She remained immersed in that tank of ice for three days.

Her survival was a miracle in itself.

But the fact that she got pregnant and was able to carry a baby to a live birth was an even stronger statement. While she was not the first woman to do so, she was one of the women used as role models so that others could see the potential for life.

She was put on display at a convention of nurses in 1960 as well as a medical convention in 1961. The goal was to highlight the advances underway in cardiac care.

The fact that the baby lived (and two other babies subsequently were born) was further proof that women who had undergone heart surgery could withstand the stress of pregnancy and the birth of babies.

And live.

This is the story of A Woman From Chadwicks. You can review further details and purchase this book by clicking here.

If your mother is no longer with us or if you're a mother who has a child no longer with us, reflect on the good times you had. Memories cannot take the place of life, but they can sometimes help those that remain through hope and love.

If your mother is still alive, give her a call to say “Hello” if she’s not in your home. If she’s in the next room, go over and let her know that she is special to you.

And if you're a new mother who's alone with a little one who doesn’t know the difference between the days of the week, treasure these days (and sleepless nights).

Happy Mother's Day.

(This image was provided courtesy of burlesonmatthew through Pixabay.)

“The heart is an organ about the size of your fist that pumps blood through your body,” according to a statement from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health of the U S Department of Health and Human Services.  “It is made up of multiple layers of tissue.  Your heart is at the center of your circulatory system. This system is a network of blood vessels, such as arteries, veins, and capillaries, that carries blood to and from all areas of your body. Your blood carries the oxygen and nutrients that your organs need to work properly. Blood also carries carbon dioxide to your lungs so you can breathe it out. Inside your heart, valves keep blood flowing in the right direction.”

“Your heart’s electrical system controls the rate and rhythm of your heartbeat,” the statement continued.  “A healthy heart supplies your body with the right amount of blood at the rate needed to work well. If disease or injury weakens your heart, your body’s organs will not receive enough blood to work normally. A problem with the electrical system – or the nervous or endocrine systems, which control your heart rate and blood pressure – can also make it harder for the heart to pump blood.”

© 2020 Richard McDonough