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Battalion/Page 3
March 1, 1983
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by Kelley Smith
Battalion Staff
The high cost and possible
ies of heart surgery rescan It
nd technologs are issues that
ill have to be faced in the In
ure, heart surgeon Dr. Michael
DeBakey said Mondav night
n Rudder Theatre.
The objective in heart
urgery research is not only to
ai jrolong life but to try and te-
D tore the patient to his normal
ife and previous working abili-
ies, said DeBakey, chain ellor ol
Javlor College of Medicine.
A society that is very humani-
arian and compassionate will
ry to find the means lor the ob-
ective, DeBakey said in his
peechsponsored by MS( 1 (treat
issues.
If it doesn’t achieve the ob
jective but only prolongs life and
he costs are high, a lot ol qnes-
ions might be raised even In a
ompassionate society,’ hr' said.
In some countries, these ques-
(ons already have been raised
ind funding for heart research
jmd treatment has been re-
tricted, he said, therefore many
seople have to wait in lines to
eceive treatment and often old-
;r people are even refused treat
ment.
However, he said, researchers
ire not going to stop doing ic-
iearch on heart diseases.
Recent research has reduced
he mortality risk of heart
iurgery from about 20 percent
;o about 2 percent, DeBakey
aid.
Of the people who have heart
urgery, HI percent are able to
eturn to work; of those, 57 per-
:enl return at the same or a
higher level of work. Depending
on the type and severity of the
disease, b! to 82 percent of the
patients are alive II) years after
surgery.
In the last ten years, resear
chers have made progress in the
treatment of heart diseases but
the exact causes of heart disease
are still unknown, DeBakey said.
“Today, there is a great deal
we can do about heart disease.
Although there are some forms
of heart disease we can still do
little for."
Public attention is always
given to good nutrition, low
cholesterol levels, normal
weight and the avoidance of
smoking as important factors in
avoiding heart disease, but they
are not causes of heart diseases,
DeBakey said.
“In general, there tends to be
too much emphasis on choles
terol."
DeBakey, who developed a
pump which became an impor
tant part of the heart-lung
machine that made open heart
surgerv possible, helped de
veloped tlie present method of
treating the two types of heart
disease, aneurisms (enlarge
ments of l he middle wall of
blood vessels) and closures of
the blood vessels.
He worked with different
types of fabrics to develope arti-
ficial artery and vein segments
that could be implanted to re
place diseased vessels.
Major contributions to the
adv ancement of cardiovascular
surgery include safe methods of
X-raying the veins, blood trans
fusions, anesthesia and che
motherapy, DeBakey said.
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Economy recovering, Gramm says
by Kim Schmidt
Battalion Staff
The American economy,
which has been in sharp reces
sion since June 1981, is on its
way back to a strong recovery,
U.S. Rep. Phil Gramm said
Monday.
Speaking at the 31st annual
Texas Farm and Ranch Credit
Conference at Texas A&M,
Gramm told the audience of
bankers and ranchers that if the
economy follows patterns set in
post-war recessions, it should re
cover just as quickly and sharply
as it went into recession. He said
recovery should start this spring
and summer.
“I think it’s pretty clear that
we have a very strong and vib
rant economic recovery under
way,” Gramm said. “But how
well it goes will depend on the
government’s fiscal policy.”
Gramm said the recession was
caused by a variety of factors.
“The recession was not
caused by a collapse in demand
but was caused by a record-high
interest rate,” he said.
The high interest rate dis
couraged people from investing
or saving their money and,
therefore, the amount of capital
available for banks to loan was
depleted. Gramm said people
only saved 4.5 cents of every dol
lar in 1981 compared with 11
cents saved on every dollar in
1971.
This, along with the rising
inflation rate, the reduction of
growth in the housing industry
and other factors, sent the eco
nomy into a tail-spin and re
sulted in a drastic increase in the
federal deficit, Gramm said.
At the same time, the unem
ployment rate increased from
7.4 percent to 10.4 percent,
further increasing the deficit.
Gramm said that each increase
“I think it's pretty clear
that we have a very
strong and vibrant eco
nomic recovery under
way. ” — U.S. Rep Phil
Gramm.
of one percent in the unemploy
ment rate drives up the federal
deficit by $28 billion because of
the loss of taxable income and
the added need for unemploy
ment benefits.
But now, Gramm said, the
economy is on the road to recov
ery because the same factors that
caused the recession are being
corrected.
The most important of these,
he said, is the increase in the in
vestment rate. People are now
saving about 9 percent of every
dollar and thus new capital is
available.
But Gramm said for the eco
nomy to recover fully, the gov
ernment will have to make some
changes.
“As the private demand for
capital grows, we have got to
back the government out of the
capital market so that money will
be available for the private
sector.”
Gramm said if the govern
ment competes with the private
sector for capital it would cause
“a drag on the economy.”
Besides getting the govern
ment out of the capital market,
other measures to quicken eco
nomic recovery were outlined by
Gramm.
He called for a decrease in
defense spending, better target
ing of expenditures for welfare
programs and a program to
force the federal bureaucracy to
live within the budget it set last
year.
Although Gramm maintains
that the economy will experi
ence a full and strong recovery if
the growth in savings and cor
rections in the other areas con
tinue, he did say one problem
may arise.
“My concern in 1984 with the
budget is that we will be faced
with a stalemate.”
He said the Democrats have
enough votes to defeat Reagan’s
budget, but they do not have a
budget plan to replace the Presi
dent’s and this could create a
problem.
eBakey speaks
n heart surgery
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