Transcripts
DR. CORNEL:
We had to make a difficult
decision at this stage as to how we would
maintain the bypass circuitry. I changed the
access from the femoral vessels, which meant a
very small incision in the groin, to one directly
into the heart, which meant a great big incision
through the breast bone.
We also opened up the sheathes
around the muscles in her leg to let the muscles
bulge out and get the pressure off them. The
muscles underneath actually looked quite viable
and we -- we wondered if there wasn't some
actual specific process related to the HUS going
on with these muscles. It would not be
surprising.
The incision in the chest was a
nightmare, as we knew it would be. It just
bled and bled and bled and we opened and closed
and put stitches and packs and so on. It was
awful, but we knew it would be.
And we had another alternative
which was to use the big artery and vein in the
neck. But we were so concerned to preserve
brain function that we would not use that.
