Newspapers / InterCom (Durham, N.C.) / April 22, 1977, edition 1 / Page 3
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A PLACE TO VVR/If—Charles Henderson (above) polishes a metal pedestal that will straddle a cadaver to give students in anatomy a place to make notes. Lloyd Averett (right) makes the legs for a special table to hold an x-ray machine. (Photos by Ina Fried and Jim Wallace) HELP FOR PATIENTS—Billy Barber (above), manager of the Surgical Instruments Shop, adjusts the straps to attach a mat to a portable weighing unit built for thoracic surgery. (The mat would remain on the patient's bed.) Raising the frame so that it lifts the patient slightly off the bed gives a highly accurate reading. On right. Barber points out some equipment in the shop to its founder Dr. J. Deryl Hart, first chairman of the Department of Surgery and president emeritus of the university. The adjustable stand in the foreground holds a hammock-type bed for an infant in the Intensive Care Nursery. Shop's Work Can Help Patients (Continued from page 1) additional finishing. The unusual facilities and expertise are now available not only to the Department of Surgery but also to other departments in the medical center and the rest of the university. "We're busy all the time/' Barber said. "We do everything from sharpening scissors to building light steel instrument carts that don't need repairing as often as commercial ones. We especially like to do patient-related work." Among the shop's patient-related achievements are blue light units for pediatric intensive care, heat exchangers for open-heart surgery, a screw appliance for treatment of cleft lip and palate and a stainless steel screwdriver to manipulate the appliance. A stretcher made there has an IV pole that fits underneath and retractable belts to keep the stretcher neat and compact when not in use. Weiring Unit A special weighing unit was built for thoracic surgery. "Heart patients -especially tend to accumulate fluids, and changes in weight reflect these changes in body fluids," explained Dr. Robert H. Jones, assistant professor of general and thoracic surgery. "The scale is highly accurate and fairly nontraumatic to the patient." A specicil mat can remain on a patient's bed, Jones said. When the patient is to be weighed, the scale frame is rolled over to the bed and attached to the mat with straps. Raising the frame so that it lifts the patient just an inch or two off the bed will give a digital readout accurate within 10 grams. Ingenuity in the shop can save money for the medical center, Jones pointed out. For instance, xenon gas, a by-product of nuclear generators, is available cheaply and in large quantities, but not dissolved in a saline solution as it must be for medical use. The Surgical Instruments Shop produced a stainless steel cylinder that crushes a capsule of xenon in the middle of a saline solution. The first use of the transfer vehicle turned a $1(X) batch of xenon into a solution that would have cost about $10,000 commercially, Jones said. Host of Little Things "The shop has made a number of phantoms for use in checking our instruments and a host of little things," Jones said. "They are often able to replace parts of equipment we're not able to reorder. In research often something is used for a specific purpose then sits around for several years until it is needed again. By that time the company may be out of business or may want to sell a new model instead of repairing the old one." For the Operating Room, the shop is motorizing a mechanism for raising and lowering an instrument table and is rigging floodlights and cameras so they can be moved to any position over the operating table. All four workmen have been "in the business" 25 years or more. Barber said. The shop has doubled its space since it was established. "Back in those days there was one central surgical lab and everybody did research there," Barber remembers. "Now, of course, they're spread out all over the medical center." Prof Among Top Marathoners Dr. William C. Hall, 36, associate professor of anatomy, outran more than 2,800 people to finish 108th in the annual Boston Marathon Monday. About 20 minutes separated Hall from the vdnner in the 26-mile, 385-yard (41.95 kilometers) course from Hopkinton, Mass., to the Prudential Life Insurance Building in downtown Boston. Hall finished in 2 hours 34 minutes 34 seconds. The winner, Canadian Jerome Drayton, finished in 2 hours 14 nunutes 46 seconds. Three other Duke professors competed in the nation's best-known distance race. They are marine geologist Orrin H. Pilkey, 42; mathematician Seth Warner, 49; and physicist Henry Fairbank, 58. ITie race, sponsored by ihe Boston Athletic Association, began at noon with a temperature of 74 degrees (about 23 degrees Celsius). The ONTOUR Touring the medical center this morning are Health Occupations II, Advanced Biology and Biochemistry students from Charles D. Owen High School, Swannanoa. Their teacher, Susan Dorrity, RN, is a former medical center employee. record field of 2,933 included 126 women. Med Show Furthers April 23 Tradition On April 23, 1564, John and Mary Shakespeare celebrated the birth of little William. On that same date in 15%, Joachim Descartes and Jeanne Brochard proudly displayed their three- week-old Rene to poor unsuspecting passers-by, not realizing that in only a few years, their son would be able to think better than most of us can gain weight. Now, four hundred years later, there comes a third reason why the date April 23 will be remembered forever. It's the annual medical student-faculty show, "Zen and all the beer you can drink" an inquiry into values (or into whatever one cares to inquire.) Doors open at 7:15 p.m. for tomorrow night's 8 p.m. show in Card Gym. Dancing will follow the performance. Tickets are on sale for $2.50 in front of the hospital cafeteria or from any cast member. Those attending are reminded to bring plastic pitchers.
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