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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 1989)
Set Pri' GARY OLDMAN KEVIN BACON A killer is back on the streets. The only one who can stop him is the lawyer who set him free. JOHN DALY JEREK GIBSON “HEMDALE RIM CORPORATION JESS HARPER • KAREN YOUNG JOE DON BAKER "JERRY GOEDSMH SK PHIEIP MEHEUX, B.S.C. -CHRIS WIMBEE R (o™«.KEN GORD wffiJOHN DALY»DEREK GIBSON "‘"MARK KASDAN ““.ROBERT MacLEAN .HILARY HEAIH I^AHDDCII □□logUT.STBwm] w«»Tmcr«» !'>CC»«W.n« | ....W.ni.ll vn.1.. Copyr^h. 1909 Hymdol. film Co. po.atiO" -—" ORtOINAL SOUNDTdACK ALRUM AVAILAIIE ON VARBE SARABANDE RECORDS, CASSCTTtS ANOCOMPACT DISCS All ..phi, r.,.. v.d A M,v|ou INI )H'is 1)1 N I A HIM FROM HEMDALE OPENS FRIDAY APRIL 28™ EVERYWHERE. Mazda thinks the class of ’89 deserves a lot of credit. Isn’t it time you rewarded yourself with a sporty new Mazda car or truck? Mazda American Credit has a First Reward program that makes it easier for college graduates to qualify for new car financing. And Mazda 323 right now, special incentives will save you hundreds of dollars wtiich can be applied to your down payment. Get MOO cash back on Mazda 323, or $ 750 cash back on a Mazda MX-6 or any 4x2 or 4x4 Mazda truck. The choice is yours, Mazda MX-6 and the selection is great, but time is short: cash back incentives end April 30. See your local Mazda Dealer or call our 800 number today. And pick up the graduation credit you so richly deserve. Call 800-424-0202, Ext. 741 See your participating Mazda Dealer for program details. Dealer participation may affect final negotiated price. ©1989, Mazda Motor of America, Inc. Ticke Organ donors improve lives of people awaiting transplants By Holly Beeson REPORTER One organ and tissue donor can benefit hundreds of people, yet hos pital patients around the nation are anxiously awaiting transplants to im prove the quality of their life. David Mathieu, transplant tech nologist for the Transplant Services Center in Dallas, said a large part of the human body can be re-used for various purposes. “Besides using bone for trans plants, it can be ground into powder to be used in dental implants and fillings,” he said. “It can also be cut into chips for use in orthopedic sur gery.” If someone has a large area of bone removed because of a tumor or cancer, Mathieu said, bone chips can fill in the area and serve as a matrix for new bone to grow in. The hip crest can be cut into bone plugs and wafers for use in anterior spinal fusion. “This is used in people who have ruptured discs or lower back injuries who need their vertebrae fused,” he said. “Then we’ll use that bone in a wedge to serve as structural support and a bone matrix so the bones will fuse together.” Femur struts (thigh bones) are cut into different lengths. When a sterile femur and joint are sent out for im plant, Mathieu said, it is sometimes too short and the physician will have to adjust it so the recipient won’t have one leg shorter than the other. “We’ll send along a segment of fe mur strut so the physician can cut it down to the correct dimension and in it in place between the recipient’s ne and the donor bone so the per son will have a properly propor tioned leg,” he said. “It’s really neat because the sterile bone and the dry bone we send for transplant will be come a part of that person’s bone and the marrow eventually will fill it in.”. Whole bones are rarely removed, Mathieu said, except for tibias and fibulas (lower leg) or humerus (up per arm). Once the bone is removed from the cadaver, usually within 12 hours of death, any muscle or extraneous tissue is removed. It is then either packaged in a sterile nutrient and antibiotic solution or it will be proc essed aseptically and sterilized in ethylene oxide. “We preserve sterile bones in a balanced salt solution with glycerol and antibiotics, which helps main tain the viability of the tissue,” he said. They are sealed in sterile pouches and preserved in liquid nitrogen in a vapor phase and can be stored for a year. Dry bone is sterilized and stored for a year, at which point it may be sterilized one more time and stored for another year. Mathieu said it’s rare that any thing fromthe cadaver is discarded. Skin is used for grafting on burn patients. It’s a homograft and not really a transplant, Mathieu said. “It’s the only implantive tissue im planted that is not expected to survi ve,” he said. “It’s used mainly to give the person an exterior covering while their own skin is regenera- ting.” The skin is taken from the upper back, the back of the legs and the front of the thighs. “On the average, we can recover 3-5 square feet of skin,” he said. “We use an instrument similar to an elec tric cheese cutter called a derma tome. It has a fine blade that oscil lates back and forth and we can set the width of the strips we take.” The ideal depth of skin taken is 16-thousandths of an inch, Mathieu said. The epidermis (outer layer) and a thin portion of the dermis (middle layer) is taken. Skin is Sacked onto nylon netting and rolled up. It is then sealed in sterile plastic pouches and again sealed into sterile foil pouches and refrigerated for 2-4 hours prior to being frozen in liquid nitrogen. “Some banks procure skin from the arms, but we find most of our success by taking it from the back, just below the shoulder blade down to just above the hip crest,” he said. Skin should be procured within four hours of death, but may be ob tained as long as 18-24 hours if the body has been cooled. The fastest moving tissues are cor- ii I’m a registered organ donor. To me, it’s neat to think that when I die, my body can be used to improve the quality of life for other people.” The physician removes thecentnl area of the corneas and they wilt transplanted directly onto the recipt ents’ eyes after their corneas arert moved. Corneas that are viable butnotns- able for direct transplant can lit processed by a technique knownai epikeratonhakia. These corneas art frozen in liquid nitrogen andcutintt specific dimensions and will be used to correct the vision of people witi “Coke bottle” lenses, Mathieusaid.| serves as a permanent contact lens. “We take whole eyes every nw and then because the sclera (whi# outer coat enclosing the eyejcanlx used for various reconstructive cosmetic surgeries,” he said. “Wtiei we lake whole eyes we remove tit corneas for use in transplants ortea' ching and research.” Scleras are cut into strips, drid and then dehydrated for sareital — David Mathieu, transplant technologist neas, the transparent outer coat of the eye, Mathieu said. People who have poor vision may perfect or sub stantially improve their vision with cornea transplants. “Cornea transplants are popular these days, and there is a high suc cess rate with them,” he said. Cornea tissue should be obtained no more than 12 hours after death. When a cornea is evaluated for transplant, it is first determined whether there are any tears in the outer part of the eye. If there are none, it is removed and examined for clarity or defects. Corneas are removed and refrig erated in a nutrient medium. Tendons are used directly as im plants. “They’re used in people that hate suffered irreversible stress, teariiij or some kind of damage totheirteit dons,” Mathieu said. Cartilage is taken from the til) cage and can be used for reconstrut- live surgery, such as in the nose. “If someone crushes the bonesia the ends of their fingers, cartilagt can be used to provide structure,"k said. We go as far as we can to deter mine the medical history of the dis nor and we evaluate the donoti blood and tissues microbiological and surgically. Anyone with AIDS, hepatitis oi syphilis is excluded from bein nors. “We always contact the familie for consent,” Mathieu said. “Wepre sent the opportunity for donation See Donor/Page 9 Psychology elective gets students ready to be hall supervisors By Sherri Roberts STAFF WRITER Roaches, roommate squabbles and rowdy neighbors are just a few of the problems residence hall advisers must confront as hall supervisors. Educational Psychology 489, the res ident adviser class, prepares aspiring resident advisers to be a hall supervi sor and the residents’ friend. “Sometimes it’s tough to be an R.A.,” Gloria Flores, coordinator of special services in the Department of Student Affairs, said. “You’re taught to be a friend and enforce the rules.” The 10-week class, which meets for two hours a week and is taught by Student Affairs staff members, covers topics such as helping and counseling skills, discipline and sen sitivity awareness. Students are required to complete three projects, including a sensitivity awareness project, in which they must interview an ethnic, homosex ual or handicapped student. Stu dents also must organize a program on a topic such as security or career counseling and must spend four to five hours with an on duty resident adviser. “They get a better perspective of what the R.A. does,” Flores said. “They’re going into it with their eyes open,” she said. Although the class is mandator for those wishing to apply for resi dent adviser, it doesn’t guarantet students the position, Flores said. Flores said she expects the thrff sections of the fall class, which is scheduled to have 45 students each to be filled. The class had the larges! enrollment of its three-year histor) in Spring 1989 with 224 studentsen- rolled. Some students take the class as an elective, while others sign up to in terview for a resident adviser po: tion during the ninth and tenli week of the class, Flores said. Students are interviewed by i board of resident advisers and a res 1 dent director. Applicants must have a soph;- more classification at the applicate' time and have a grade-point ration' 2.25, which must be maintains throughout their semester-long tet ure as a resident adviser. Resident advisers are paid ab« $1,000 a semester and supervise* average of 60 students, Flores said About 150 to 160 resident ads' ers will be needed in Fall IDE Flores said. This number, which an increase from the 132 reside advisers employed this semester, necessary because five new halls v be opened at Texas A&M in Augu she said. POSTO Big Un< Come sit ui watch the sta: Island Music Arthur, Texa: Getaway Wee that will have hits and enjo' hospitality. The Be One P We Gu. lill 'Mu?/ 707”