“Fluorescent Heart”

Cleveland Clinic News Service

February 27, 2008

Reporter: Mike Jacobson	Photog: Chris Bilowich
Produced by: Mike Jacobson	Split audio track
Package Length: 1:52

ANCHOR LEAD Heart bypass surgery can be a risky procedure. In fact, experts say four to six percent can have some kind of technical problem in the operating room.

Cleveland Clinic heart experts want to lower that risk with the help of fluorescent dye.

Mike Jacobson has the story.

VO/Instructions Sound on Tape (SOT)

Milt Weiss walking into garage “This is my so-called record archive. I have a locater system. All kind of stuff here.” (:06)

IN A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE USUALLY HOUSE THEIR CARS...

Milt looking at his albums “These are old album sets.” (:02)

MILT WEISS GARAGE STORES THINGS A LITTLE MORE HIS OWN SPEED.

Milt grabs an album “Plays at 78 for you. It’s a little beat up, but you can hear.” (:03)

Record playing Music. (:01)

HE OWNS AROUND 15-THOUSAND RECORDS. MOST ARE TWO DECADES OLDER THAN MILT. AND HE’S 82.

CG: Milt Weiss

Record Collector “Condition, like anything else, is primarily important.” (:04)

Showing more records BUT FORGET ABOUT THE CONDITION OF HIS RECORDS.

Milt in doc office “I don’t have all my stamina back yet.” (:02)

MILT’S MORE FOCUSED ON THE CONDITION OF HIS HEART.

Surgery SIX MONTHS AGO, HE HAD A CORONARY ARTERY BYPASS GRAFT. IT’S A COMPLICATED AND RISKY SURGERY THAT REROUTES BLOOD FLOW AROUND A BLOCKED ARTERY BY USING ARTERIES FROM THE CHEST WALL OR A VEIN TAKEN FROM THE LEG.

CG: Dr. W. Douglas Boyd

Cleveland Clinic “Up to four to six percent of bypass grafts have some kind of technical problem in the operating room.” (:06)

Surgery PROBLEMS LIKE A MISPLACED STITCH OR A MALFUNCTIONING GRAFT.

“That ought to do it.” (:01)

BUT CLEVELAND CLINIC DOCTORS ARE STUDYING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A FLUORESCENT DYE INJECTED IN THE BLOOD STREAM THAT CAN POTENTIALLY SHOW AN IRREGULARITY WITH THE GRAFT AND REDUCE THE PATIENTS’S RISK OF COMPLICATIONS.

CG: Dr. W. Douglas Boyd

Cleveland Clinic “If you know that all of a sudden the dye doesn’t, it sort of goes in and hangs in and doesn’t flush out or the dye doesn’t go into the graft, you know there’s a problem with the inflow or the outflow.” (:13)

Milt playing record “There’s nobody alive who hasn’t heard of this song.” (:02)

NATS. Music. (:02)

MILT COMPARES THE DYE TO A NEEDLE ON THE RECORD.

CG: Milt Weiss

Record Collector “If there’s wear or scratches, you know. It’ll tick. It’ll make noise and you’ll be able to pick it up.”

Milt listening to record THE DYE SHOWED MILT’S GRAFT WORKED PERFECTLY, WHICH GIVES HIM THE PEACE OF MIND TO ENJOY THE MUSIC. MIKE JACOBSON REPORTING.

Anchor Tag About ten other hospitals across the country are testing the effectiveness of this fluorescent dye for bypass graft surgery.

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