by Robert Bloch
Q. Polanski’s hands were bruised?
A. No, not so that I could notice. You have to remember I was up to my ass, pardon my French. Anyway, before I really had a chance to look, Dr. Geiger said to go ahead, to begin the operation.
Q. Dr. Geiger was present?
A. You don’t understand. We were in Surgery A with Tony Polanski. Dr. Geiger was in Surgery B, getting ready to open up the recipient’s heart. That’s Hollis Todd, the recipient, follow? But Dr. Geiger had an intercom system hooked up between A and B so he could give us the word when to start. The two operations had to be synchronized, that’s important. So now he told Dr. Everett to go ahead, over the intercom.
Q. Will you describe the operation, please.
A. If you say so, but it’s technical. Dr. Everett made a midline incision. He snipped some ribs and the heart was exposed. It was one healthy heart, believe me, I’ve done a lot of open-heart work and you can tell. We had Dr. Palmer standing by for assist and he’d gotten a heart-lung pump ready, and now Dr. Everett attached it to the heart and clamped off the aorta, the pulmonary artery, and the venae cavae. So now the heart was getting oxygenated blood cooled to seventy-two degrees. And now comes the first big moment in any operation like this, Dr. Everett cuts eight blood vessels and severs the ligaments and the donor heart is free. It’s disconnected from the pump and carried into Surgery B. I don’t care how many of these things you see, you always think somebody’s going to drop that heart. I know that’s no way for a surgical nurse to talk but you think it every time.
Q. Did Dr. Everett then go into Surgery B?
A. Well, sure. So did I. Or we went into the little sterile anteroom between the two surgeries and Dr. Geiger was waiting there. That’s when I began to wonder if Dr. Everett was sick.
Q. Why did you think that?
A. Because he was in a cold sweat. And Dr. Everett’s a very cool surgeon, believe me. But he was in this cold sweat, and when Dr. Geiger asked how it was going, he said, “Something’s wrong.” “With the heart?” Dr. Geiger said. “No,” Dr. Everett said, “it’s a perfect heart.” Well, you can hardly blame Dr. Geiger for blowing up. “Then what the hell do you mean?” he said. Dr. Everett didn’t answer him right away, and then he said, “I don’t know, I can’t put my finger on it.” Dr. Geiger was really angry now, but he kept his voice down and all he did was ask Dr. Everett if he wanted to be relieved from surgery. And of course Dr. Everett said no. You just don’t relieve yourself from something like this, not with Dr. Geiger in charge. “Sorry,” he said. “We’ll talk later.” Dr. Geiger just looked at him, and then he said, “Let’s get on with it,” and turned around and walked back into Surgery B. So I changed Dr. Everett’s gown and he went on into Surgery B after Dr. Geiger. But just before he opened the door he sort of hesitated for a second. And then he asked me to do something irregular, but I figured he knew what he was doing.
Q. What exactly did he ask you to do?
A. He told me not to release Tony Polanski’s body to the next of kin.
Continued Extract From the Statement of Walter Geiger, M.D.
. . . The transplant itself was accomplished under optimum conditions. Everything was on our side. In brief outline, I will tell you what I did after the donor heart was in Surgery B. I carried out the actual removal of Hollis Todd’s heart. I stitched the donor heart into its place. May I say here that the heart is a far less complex organ than most people imagine. It is just a tough muscle. Next—about four hours had passed since surgery began—I ordered electrodes placed on each side of the heart and a current of twenty-five-watt-seconds applied. The heart began to beat. But of course we still had a pump attached, and we would not try to remove the pump for at least ten minutes. So actually we did not know yet if it was going to work. You never know.
Q. During this time was Dr. Everett in Surgery B with you?
A. He was.
Q. Did there seem to be anything unusual about his behavior?
A. There can be no unusual behavior in surgery.
Q. Let’s put it this way. Was there any tension between you?
A. There was. There was.
From the Los Angeles Evening Standard
13 October
EVA PRAYS, AIDE WORKS
DURING TODD OPERATION
by Anne Sackworth
“Oct. 13—While Hollis Todd lingered between life and death in Operating Chamber B atop Los Angeles General Hospital today, his longtime companion, Eva Veillier, sat in the hospital’s nondenominational chapel just two floors away. This reporter discovered Mrs. Veillier in circumstances that resembled a cat-and-mouse detective story.
Authorities at Los Angeles General refused early this morning to admit either that Mr. Todd was a patient or to allow reporters into the hospital to check on the rumor that he had been flown to this city late last evening for emergency heart surgery.
While press representatives besieged the outer reception lobby, this reporter slipped out the front door, shed her coat and walked into the hospital through the Emergency entrance, wearing a borrowed nurse’s uniform and cap which she had donned in anticipation of the situation. No one on the hospital staff was the wiser as your correspondent went unchallenged.
In the solarium on the hospital’s top floor, just below the surgical units, this reporter discovered Mr. Crosby McCullen, the financial wizard many credit as Hollis Todd’s indispensable right hand. Mr. McCullen was dictating memoranda into a tape recorder. Although recognized by your correspondent, Mr. McCullen refused either to acknowledge his name or to answer any questions concerning his own presence in the hospital or the whereabouts of Mr. Hollis Todd. When he threatened to summon hospital authorities, this reporter slipped down a service stairway.
Your correspondent then checked waiting-areas and visiting rooms on every floor of the hospital. On the fifth floor she opened the door into the chapel. Eva Veillier was sitting there alone. Your correspondent asked Mrs. Veillier if she were praying for Hollis Todd. Mrs. Veillier would not answer the question. She was then asked by this reporter if Hollis Todd was presently undergoing surgery, and if so, the exact nature of the operation. Before she could reply, hospital attendants arrived, led by Mr. McCullen, and insisted upon your correspondent leaving the premises. From the context of remarks exchanged between Mr. McCullen and Mrs. Veillier during this episode, it seemed apparent that some form of cardiac surgery had been performed upon Hollis Todd or, more likely, was still in progress.”
Continued Extract From the Statement of Walter Geiger, M.D.
. . . As I said, it was ten minutes before we took the pump off. What happened then would have alarmed me had this been my first transplant. The heart stopped. I ordered the pump switched back on. We gave it another five minutes and tried again. This time the ECG showed a beat and it was strong and regular. I knew it was going to work, so I stepped back and requested Dr. Everett to close the incision, which he did.
Q. How did you feel about this, well, this tension between you and Dr. Everett?
A. To the extent that there is time to feel anything in surgery, I felt angry. I knew that Dr. Everett had been having personal problems and I was angered that he had let them intrude upon our work. You may find that to be an unsympathetic reaction, but you must understand that one of the prime requisites of the surgeon is emotional stability, control under stress situations. I cannot afford to tolerate any deviation from professional standards, and in this instance I resented Dr. Everett’s attitude, whatever the causation. As I say, you may consider my reaction unsympathetic, but many people, for that matter, find me an unsympathetic man.
Continued Extract From the Statement of Melvin De Toledano
. . . During the operation I was with Dr. Mantle, Mr. Todd’s personal physician, in Dr. Geiger’s office. There is an observation window overlooking the surgery units below, and naturally Dr. Mantle was most anxious to view the procedure.
Q. Did you notice anything out of the ordinary during the course of the operat
ion?
A. No, I did not.
Q. Let me rephrase the question. Did you notice anything out of the ordinary in the behavior of any members of the surgical team?
A. Well. To be perfectly frank with you, I did not watch for more than a few minutes while the actual surgery was being performed. Although I am in a position which brings me into daily contact with human suffering, I have never become inured to it. I am not ashamed to admit that I do not like the sight of blood. I consider this, by the way, to be a perfectly normal reaction. And in this particular instance, with the patient being Mr. Todd, a man for whom I have always felt the keenest admiration, one of the really important men of our generation you might say, my natural empathy and concern was greatly increased. I did not leave the office at any time while the operation was in progress—I felt it was my duty to stay, and I did—but most of the time I was at Dr. Geiger’s desk, using his phone to keep in contact with the various departments under my supervision. The press was giving them a lot of trouble downstairs, and I wanted to make sure that the staff was following orders and continuing to protect Mr. Todd’s privacy. So I was really tending to business, minding the store as they put it, while Dr. Mantle followed the progress of the transplant.
Q. While Dr. Mantle was watching, did he make any comments which might lead you to believe he was observing anything unusual in the behavior of the team?
A. No, he had never actually witnessed an operation of this sort before and he seemed fascinated. In the professional sense, that is. You understand he has a background in cardiology, that was his specialty, but reading reports on transplant surgery is not quite the same thing as firsthand observation. But academically, of course, he knew all the techniques. So he kept saying things like, “Good, that’s it, clamp it off now, great, beautiful!” I must confess I found his choice of expressions somewhat incongruous under the circumstances. It was almost like a football fan watching a game on television and offering gratuitous advice to the players. Except that this was not a game he was watching. I did notice that most of the time he concentrated his full attention on what was happening to Mr. Todd in Surgery B, and this naturally I could understand, inasmuch as Mr. Todd’s welfare was the primary concern. And once—it must have been while Mr. Todd’s heart was actually being removed—he said something about Dr. Geiger.
Q. Go on.
A. He said, and I must apologize for the words but of course you realize they were uttered under great emotional stress—he said, “Jesus Christ, how I envy that son-of-a-bitch!”
Q. Do you know what he meant?
A. Yes, because he told me. He said—
Q. Continue, please.
A. Very well. After all, he did say it and I’m only quoting. He said, “There was a time when I could have made it. But when your hands start shaking, you can only reach for a bottle, not a scalpel.”
Q. Anything more?
A. Well after that—that outburst, or whatever you choose to call it—Dr. Mantle’s whole mood and attitude seemed to change. As I mentioned, he kept focussing his attention on Mr. Todd, and for a long while he was quiet, very quiet, just watching while the donor heart was being stitched into place. There was a pump attachment which stimulated heart action and I gather that after a certain time it was removed. I wasn’t following at that moment, I was on the phone talking to Crosby McCullen about an unfortunate incident involving a woman reporter who had somehow managed to bypass hospital security measures and annoy Mrs. Veillier with her impertinent questions—at any rate, just at this point, Dr. Mantle banged his fist against the glass of the observation window and said, “Oh no!”
Q. To what was he referring?
A. Please—if you will kindly refrain from interrupting, I was about to tell you. Dr. Mantle turned to me and he said, “The heart. It’s stopped.” I looked at him and his face was absolutely gray. I joined him at the window immediately, and forced myself to watch. I don’t suppose you have ever seen an exposed human heart in an open chest cavity, nor had I until that moment. It is—well, no matter, we are discussing Dr. Mantle’s reactions here. “Get that pump back on,” he said. “Get it on!” Of course Dr. Geiger down there in Surgery B couldn’t hear a word of what he was saying. But apparently he did switch on the pump because after a moment or two Dr. Mantle said, “There, that’s better.” I must tell you that after my first glimpse I turned my head away from the observation window, but I did continue to watch Dr. Mantle. Gradually he seemed to relax and after perhaps five minutes he said, “It’s all right. They’ve taken the pump off again and it’s going to work.” Then he walked away from the window and sat down in an armchair, you might say he collapsed into it rather than sat, because he was utterly limp. Seeing him this way one might think he had just completed performing the operation himself, and in a way you could say he had. “That was close,” he said. “Very, very close.” I didn’t say anything. I imagine he felt somewhat embarrassed about exposing his emotional reaction to me because he attempted to make a joke about it. “You know,” he said, “when I looked down and saw Todd’s heart wasn’t beating, mine almost stopped too. And if it hadn’t started again, mine would have stopped.” I told him I could understand how he felt, because I was fond of Mr. Todd too, and preserving his life meant a great deal to me. And that there were others, many others, who shared my concern for his welfare. “You can say that again,” he said. And then he poured himself another—uh, it was precisely then, as I recall, that—
Q. One moment. Dr. Mantle was drinking?
A. I find these interruptions most distracting. What I was attempting to tell you—
Q. Had Dr. Mantle been drinking during the time he was watching the operation with you?
A. Dr. Mantle was not engaged in the performance of any professional duties. I do not feel that a discussion of his personal activities is at all relevant.
Q. Please.
A. Very well. If you insist. But I wish to state for the record that I consider this line of questioning in dubious taste, an invasion of privacy. Dr. Mantle had been under great stress, he was extremely fatigued. While faithfully observing the operating procedures, which I might remind you took place over a lengthy period of time, he took several drinks of whisky from a small bottle he had brought with him. That is all.
Q. Thank you.
A. I was about to say that at this point Mr. Crosby McCullen phoned and asked for my assistance in arranging facilities for a press conference. I agreed with him that this was a matter of necessity and importance. So I went to work on it immediately . . .
Extract From Post-Transplant Press Conference:
Videotape Courtesy NBC News
“This is Kieron Morgan, NBC News Los Angeles, speaking to you from the teaching amphitheater at Los Angeles General Hospital, where this hastily organized press conference has been called. It is a truly extraordinary moment in a truly extraordinary day. The heart of one of the world’s greatest athletes beats on in the body of one of the world’s richest men. No one can pinpoint exactly when word began to spread this morning that Hollis Todd had arrived in the City of Angels for a crucial heart transplant operation. No one can tell you at what precise moment the fate of Anton Polanski began to link with the future of Hollis Todd. The hospital would not officially admit that Hollis Todd was a patient. But somehow Los Angeles just knew . . . one moment, ladies and gentlemen. Dr. Walter Geiger, the heart specialist who performed the transplant, has just entered the room. This is remarkable . . . the ovation you’re hearing . . . reporters and photographers are actually standing and applauding . . .”
Q. Dr. Geiger, Dr. Geiger . . .
A. Gentlemen, first of all, I would like to say I’m tired. We, the members of my staff here and myself, have been up all night, and as you can imagine, these last four hours and fifty-six minutes have been somewhat of a strain. So I’d like to keep this short. Please direct your questions to either Dr. Everett or me. Dr. Everett—where is Dr. Everett? I asked him to be here. Do any of you people kno
w where he went? I told him to be here . . . Gentlemen, I’m afraid the sight of a bed was more than Dr. Everett could pass up. (Laughter) So let’s get on with it.
Q. Doctor, did the fact that Anton Polanski was an athlete make him a better donor than a more sedentary person?
A. Let’s say it didn’t hurt. That young man had the heart of a bull. But at the same time I should say that far more important for our purposes was Mr. Polanski’s blood type and rejection cycle. There are many medical factors inherent in Mr. Todd’s condition that makes the perfect donor in his case a very rare specimen. Mr. Polanski was that perfect donor. And I’d like to say something here about Mr. Polanski’s heart—the abstraction called heart, rather than the tissue itself. I think he showed a will to live greater than that of any other patient I have ever seen. He must have been a splendid young man. (Applause)
Q. Doctor, when did you know the operation was a success?
A. When the beat started and maintained without irregularity, independent of artificial stimulation. You can tell immediately if it’s all right, because if you’re getting a good beat then everything is right, temperatures, blood pressure, electrolytes, everything.
Q. Doctor, what is your definition of death? “You’re dead when your doctor says you are?”
A. I’ve found that after fourteen transplant operations I no longer resent that question—nor the implication behind it that I am a murderer who takes hearts from healthy people and transplants them into sick bodies. To answer your question simply, a patient is dead when—through the use of electroencephalograms—the doctor can see that all electrical activity in the brain has ceased. The heart can stop, and you can start it beating again. But once the brain stops, it does not recover. Yes?