PART ONE: SURGICAL STORIES OF THE FAMOUS BY CONOR MAGEE MD FRCS, CONSULTANT SURGEON
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MEDICAL
PART ONE: SURGICAL STORIES OF THE FAMOUS BY CONOR MAGEE MD FRCS, CONSULTANT SURGEON
To a surgeon there is nothing special about celebrities. Famous people may have the adoration of millions or a long list of stellar achievements, but once anaesthetised and draped they are literally the same as you and me. On the inside we are all alike- which means that fame is no protection against human disease and frailty. In this and my next article I am going to relate a number of surgical stories- can you identify the patient before all is revealed?
Case 1: The Sellotape wrapped physicist In 1948, a 69 year old physicist developed increasing abdominal pain and was thought to have intestinal cysts. Unfortunately, at surgery his surgeon encountered the true cause of his pain- an abdominal aortic aneurysm( Figure 1). This is a condition where the largest artery in the body( aorta) becomes swollen and thin walled, a balloon that can rupture causing catastrophic bleeding and death. At the time there was no proven surgical treatment, yet what could be done for this man who was a scientist of some repute? The surgeon looked down at the grapefruit sized aneurysm, throbbing from the flowing blood within. The only option was to wrap the aneurysm in cellophane( a primitive plastic used in early versions of Sellotape) in the hope this would cause an intense inflammatory response, encasing it in scar tissue to prevent rupture. The physicist recovered from his surgery and indeed went on to live a further seven years because of his surgeon’ s skill. The aneurysm finally ruptured in 1995 but the scientist declined further intervention quipping“ The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life, either we suffer in our health, or we suffer in our soul, or we get fat.” The physicist was Albert Einstein- world famous in 1948 and still today the world’ s best known scientist. Of particular interest to myself is the fact that his surgeon was Rudolph Nissen- a pioneer of gullet surgery- whose name lives on as the Nissen Fundoplicaation procedure that I often perform!
Case 2: Not an ordinary case of Jammin’ your toe In 1977 this Caribbean male musician was playing football and injured his toe. Despite rest and analgesia the pain persisted and he sought medical advice. His doctor’ s diagnosed a malignant melanoma of the big toe and was advised to have the toe amputated but he refused on religious grounds. As an alternative
to surgery he embarked on a number of holistic treatments. Unfortunately, these were not of any benefit- the melanoma spread aggressively throughout his body and he died in 1981 at the age of 36.
Malignant melanoma( Figure 2) is the most aggressive form of skin cancer- often appearing as enlarging, bleeding mole. It can be more difficult to spot in dark skin or underneath a nail. It spreads rapidly and early surgery offers the best chance of cure. In this case the patient was the Reggae musician Bob Marley. Marley was a devout Rastafarian whose religious beliefs included the avoidance of surgery- Leviticus is often quoted“ They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in the flesh”.
It is suspected that Marley’ s wish to avoid surgery left him vulnerable to unscrupulous doctors who offered the false hope of cure with the expensive prescription of nostrums and dietary manipulation.
MALIGNANT MELANOMA OF TOE
Next month I will present more famous surgical stories!
Mr Magee operates at Spire Murrayfield Hospital and can be contacted there. He can be followed on Twitter @ mageefrcs.
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