Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A pioneering heart transplant surgeon who performed a controversial baboon experiment and achieved a 90% success rate.
On the island
Eight records
Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major, BWV 846
I find the music of Bach very, very soothing, and it sounds very, very simple, and yet it's absolutely perfect in every way, mathematically.
I didn't understand Bob Marley initially and it was my son who was playing Bob Marley and it took me some time to understand this music and then when I did, I found that it's an extremely sensitive person with lovely music which tackles a lot of human issues.
Vienna Philharmonic and State Opera Chorus, conducted by István Kertész
the confitante is representing this terrific agitation of the soul or something which only Mozart can depict.
Vienna Philharmonic and State Opera Chorus, conducted by István Kertész
this is a very peaceful, thoughtful piece of music.
Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by James Levine
Tchaikovsky is again a very sensitive musician and he created this music with three or four dancers dancing and that to me represents human elegance in a very big way.
Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Sir Georg Solti
I heard my own daughter singing in the choir. I was so moved that that piece of music has just stuck in my mind and will forever.
I find his serenade as representative of that extremely beautiful attribute.
Mozart has many facets as we have heard, but at times he can be very thoughtful and I think that in the Fantasia he just shows that very nicely.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:04Does the fact that heart transplants are now routine mean you've stopped exploring the limits?
Not at all. Although there has been a lot of improvements and achievements in the transplantation field, there are still a lot of problems and a lot of areas which need to be explored, which are currently being explored. Problems like what we call chronic rejection and that the hearts develop a degree of coronary disease. So there is narrowing of the coronaries again. There are tumors, there could be cancer, there are rejection, infections. All right, it's not very common, but it needs to be eradicated.
Presenter asks
9:03Can you trace the origin of your ambitions to be a heart surgeon?
Almost as far as I remember, I wanted to be a doctor. My father was a doctor and I identified a lot with him. And I said almost jokingly that I'm going to be a surgeon. Probably a heart surgeon or a brain surgeon and my father opposed me and said 'You'll never make that. No, A. It's not a very good life, you can see it how I'm struggling all the time and b You almost certainly I'm not suited for it.'
Presenter asks
17:43Can you explain what you did with the baboon and why?
At that time it was shown by some investigators that if you cool a primate, specifically the baboon, and then exchange take all his blood out, and put human blood, and then re warm that animal that the animal would live happily the blood will not reject the other organs, and vice versa. This will continue for a period of several weeks. During that period you can connect that animal to a human where the blood is compatible. If you do that, you provide a multi-organ support. This has been done to provide support for failing livers. What I did was just an extension of that concept because I had this beautiful baby who had one chambered heart, had some sort of a correction, and was doing well, and then the heart failed, but also several other organs failed. His brain, however, did not. And that was a very strong stimulus for me to think that if I connect that baby to a baboon treated in the fashion I've just mentioned, that that can provide multi-organ support.
The keepsakes
The book
Sir Peter Medawar
In that book he starts by saying that one of his friends came to him and said, I understand you're a philosopher. Don't you think that Pluto's Republic is a wonderful thing. What he meant, of course, was Plato's Republic, and he got it all wrong, mistaking the philosopher with Pluto, who is from the Greek mythology, the god of the underworld and death. Peter Medow thought that was really apt, because there must be a Pluto's republic for the intellectual underworld, and that this has many citizens. And then he starts telling you in a very humorous fashion, and critical, of course, about the citizens of Pluto's Republic.
Presenter asks
19:45Did you have any ethical dilemma about using a baboon?
Yes, I felt at the time, and I feel now that there are certain animals who are breeding too fast, and the baboon comes under that heading because there are too many. There aren't there's no way we can use an animal who threatened like the higher primates. But baboons, I thought that they can be used on one condition, and that is that we should respect their needs.
Presenter asks
23:39Why are you so shy about having a public profile?
What I feel is the issues which are being addressed at any one time can be confused with the people who are involved.
Presenter asks
27:58How far off is the invention of a fully artificial heart?
There are devices now which can support life for up to one or two years. And that period could be lengthened, but it hasn't got the finesse of a biological system. Which is just incredible, it's so superior to anything man can make. But the interesting thing is that now with the aid of molecular biology, you can control biological processes or you can have a hybrid whereby you have genes doing things for you in an artificial fashion, if you like. And perhaps also what is coming is manipulating organs from other species to make them compatible with man.
“I find the music of Bach very, very soothing, and it sounds very, very simple, and yet it's absolutely perfect in every way, mathematically.”
“I adore silence, I find it a bliss.”
“I think giving blood is a duty almost.”
“While a doctor should be rational and detached in some way to be able to do absolutely the right thing at the right time, you cannot deny the fact that everybody is not a machine, and you cannot suddenly say, I don't have any emotions and I'm going to be a machine. So a mixture of the two, I don't think, does any harm.”
“I think it's a marvelous system. Yes, it has a lot of problems and deficiencies which need to be corrected, that's for sure. It's not perfect, but what is. But it is the nearest you can get to perfection. Sometimes I think the British public don't realize what an asset this is and how important it is to preserve it, strengthen it and get it to a very high level.”
“I still long for the idea of being on my own, interacting with nature, I think it doesn't frighten me somehow.”