Operation on the Air

Under a hot lamp in the green-tiled operating room, the patient lay masked and draped in white. Only a six-inch patch of iodine-stained abdomen was exposed. Although numbed below the waist by a spinal anesthetic, he could hear everything that was going on.

Only unusual fixture in the room was a microphone which stood at the side of the operating table. It was linked to another, held behind the glass observation window by Announcer Bill Sandiford of Mutual's Station KOL.

Said he: "Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to hear the first broadcast of an actual operation right now at Kings County [Harborview] Hospital in Seattle . . . [under the sponsorship] of the Washington State Medical Association."

The patient's name, he continued, was Louis, and he was about to have his appendix removed. Presently Bill turned the microphone over, to Dr. Edward Allen Nixon, who stood near the table.

Said Dr. Nixon: "The vermiform appendix ... is a small tubelike growth which projects from the large intestine near the spot where the large and small intestines meet. The appendix is from a quarter to a half-inch thick, and from three to four inches long. All but the last inch or so ... is usually attached to the colon so that it must be carefully removed.

"The surgeon now clamps two hemostats near the upper, or open end of the appendix, closing the tube off both ways. . . .

"With the scalpel ... he detaches the appendix squarely between the two clamps. . . .

"The appendix is carefully removed from the side of the colon . . . and now it is lifted out, the open end still clamped tightly shut by the hemostat. . . .

"Now the delicate work of suturing, or sewing up, begins. . . . The surgeon weaves the suture neatly around the base of the [sterilized] appendix stump so that it may be drawn closed in much the same manner you would close a tobacco sack. Next he will fold in the end of the appendix with a cross-stitch on top of it so there will be nothing left to cause trouble, such as adhesions."

As the surgeon neatly closed layer upon layer of muscle, Dr. Nixon turned to Louis, who lay quietly smiling under the spotlight. "Louis," he said, "you're the first person in history ever to tell people about his operation before it is even over. . . . Would you like to say hello?"

Said Louis: "Hello, everybody. . . . No pain at all. ... I want to thank you . . . doctors and nurses, for all you've done."

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