Facts and ideas

I love your “Facts and ideas from anywhere” columns. The July 2017 column (1) deserves some comment. On page 387, you mention Dr. Starzl. In 1966 or thereabout, I was aware that he was planning a liver transplant in an infant. I was unaware then of the 1963 attempt. I sent him an infant with biliary atresia, named Paula. Starzl, whom I talked to several times, planned to do the transplant in Paula as his first infant. While waiting for a donor, the staff got very attached to Paula, he told me. He knew that he would lose the first case and did not want to demoralize the staff excessively. He decided to do another transplant first in an infant with a large liver tumor. He later performed the transplant in Paula and had all sorts of technical problems, and she died.

Russian leeches: I was a guest of Professor Stan Doletski in Moscow in 1979. My family was in the operating room when he corrected an esophageal atresia. We toured the premier children's hospital with him. It was like the USA in 1890. No money!

Climate change, p. 387: I think that guy Tom Snyder is on drugs…. We do have climate change that even rabid anti-CO₂ people agree that we cannot affect regardless of what we do. I remember the 1970s when we were told that another ice age was upon us. I am not sure that the planet is now warming. Mount St. Helen got more CO₂ into the air than all of the coal-burning power plants in China can do in 100+ years.

Cost of pets, p. 386: I am a dog lover, but not a cat lover. I shudder at the way people spend time and money on dogs. Worst, they substitute them for human infants. You know the demographics. We had three, but it should have been five. We had several poodles also.

Your other items were well discussed. Thank you.

Dick Ellis, MD
Fort Worth, Texas