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arising at the Center rel5nng upon interviews with some of the physi- 

 cians nnd surgeons for his data.'®® 



Talks with a number of physicians and surgeons, according to 

 Kessler, "reveal a widespread lack of faith in the skill of some — but 

 not all — of the anesthesiologists who work at the center." Some of 

 the doctors said that they would go to other hospitals in such medical 

 Centers as Boston before allowing. themselves to be put to sleep at the 

 Center, and others said they would enter the hospital center for an 

 operation only if a certain anesthesiologist were selected in advance. 

 "I was very scared when my daughter came up for routine surgery 

 (at the Center) last spring," confided Dr. Kicliard C. Reba, chief of 

 the center's nuclear medicine department. Dr. Reba consented to sur- 

 gery for his daughter only when the surgeon assured him he used only 

 a certain two of the hospital's anesthesiologists. "Most of them (the 

 anesthesiologists) don't know what they're doing," he said. Dr. P. J. 

 Lowenthal, chief of the Center's anesthesiology department, dis- 

 counted such criticism. 



However, Dr. Ernest A. Gould, a trustee of the Center and former 

 chief of the medical staff and chief of surgery until 1970, said he would 

 only allow four of the more than 20 anesthesiologists at the Center to 

 give him anesthesia if he had to undergo an operation. (Apparently, 

 a high percentage if not all of the anesthesiologists are Asian FMGs.) 

 Kessler continued to paraphrase Dr. Gould : "Even if it were an emer- 

 gency, he says, he wouldn't allow two of the anesthesiologists (one of 

 whom has recently left the hospital) to go near him, nor would he allow 

 them in the operating room with him while he is performing surgery." 

 Dr. Gould noted that he was similarly selective in the anesthesiologists 

 he used, but he acknowledged that many surgeons at the Center took 

 those assigned. He explained that breathing or heart beat is stopped by 

 anesthesia in about 1 in every 2,500 operations at the Center and about 

 '30 percent of these arrests result in death. He estimated about five anes- 

 thesia deaths a year at the Center. Dr. Solomon N. Albert, anesthesiolo- 

 gist at the Center, responded when asked about these figures : "Let him 

 document it." When asked about the death rate, Dr. Albert said : "I 

 don't know it offhand. It isn't so much." 



One problem in anesthesiology, said Samuel Scrivener, Jr., president 

 of the Center, who expressed concern about the. state of the specialty 

 at the Center, was, in Kessler's words, "that many anesthesiologists 

 trained in foreign countries can't speak English well." This is particu- 

 larly true of Koreans, said Dr. Gould, while some anesthesiologists 

 from Japan speak English well. Dr. (jould noted that instant com- 

 munication between anesthesiologist and surgeon are essential 

 throughout an operation. Referring to the language problem. Dr. 

 Gould said, "If the question requires a 'yes' or 'no' answer, they're OK, 



"»» Mr. Kessler explained the vital function of tiie anesthesiologist : "During an opera- 

 tion, the anesthesiologist generally regulates the flow of anesthetic liquid or gas entering 

 the patient, increasing it when the surgeon wants the muscles relaxed and reducing it 

 when the patient needs time to recover from a critical slirgical maneuver. In addition, the 

 anesthesiologist regulates the supply of oxygen to the patient and watches his bodily 

 signs for any danger signal. A moment's delay in reacting to a problem or a slip of the 

 hand on the valves regulating the chemicals, can cause immediate death, brain damage, 

 or paralysis." 



