Cardiac Surgery

McGregor J. Ferguson, an Annapolis veterinary cardiologist, died Sunday of undetermined causes at his Millersville home. He was 41. "We are waiting for a cause of death pending the results of an autopsy," said his father, Dr. Ray Ferguson of Federal Hill. McGregor John Ferguson was born in Baltimore and raised in Arnold. He was a 1989 graduate of Severna Park High School, where he played lacrosse and football. After earning a bachelor's degree in 1993 from Swarthmore College, where he was a member of the lacrosse team, he earned his veterinary degree in 1999 from Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, which is part of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg.

Stem cells from newborns appear to have a much greater ability to restore heart function than adult stem cells, according to a new study from University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers who were looking for ways to mend children's broken hearts. It was the first study to compare the regenerative abilities of the stem cells. And the lab and animal studies showed a three-fold ability of newborn cells to restore heart function. The study is published in the September 11 issue of Circulation . “The surprising finding is that the cells from neonates are extremely regenerative and perform better than adult stem cells,” said the study's senor author Dr. Sunjay Kaushal, associate professor of surgery at Maryland and director of pediatric cardiac surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

The federal agency responsible for investigating Medicare fraud and other health law violations, and whose probe of St. Joseph Medical Center led to a leadership shake-up last month, has ordered a group of cardiology specialists affiliated with the hospital to hand over business records. Midatlantic Cardiovascular Associates, a dominant cardiology practice at hospitals in the Baltimore area, received a subpoena from the Department of Health and Human Services in June - the month the agency made a similar demand of St. Joseph, according to documents shared with The Baltimore Sun and sources connected to the hospital.

McGregor J. Ferguson, an Annapolis veterinary cardiologist, died Sunday of undetermined causes at his Millersville home. He was 41. "We are waiting for a cause of death pending the results of an autopsy," said his father, Dr. Ray Ferguson of Federal Hill. McGregor John Ferguson was born in Baltimore and raised in Arnold. He was a 1989 graduate of Severna Park High School, where he played lacrosse and football. After earning a bachelor's degree in 1993 from Swarthmore College, where he was a member of the lacrosse team, he earned his veterinary degree in 1999 from Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, which is part of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg.

Dr. Martin W. Donner, retired head of radiology at the Johns Hopkins medical school and hospital and a world expert on swallowing, died Monday at Hopkins Hospital of complications after an apparently successful heart transplant March 6. He was 71 and lived on South Wind Road in Ruxton.Services for Dr. Donner will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Zion Lutheran Church near Baltimore's City Hall.He became director of the Department of Radiology in the medical school and chief of radiology in the hospital in 1972.

Stem cells from newborns appear to have a much greater ability to restore heart function than adult stem cells, according to a new study from University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers who were looking for ways to mend children's broken hearts. It was the first study to compare the regenerative abilities of the stem cells. And the lab and animal studies showed a three-fold ability of newborn cells to restore heart function. The study is published in the September 11 issue of Circulation . “The surprising finding is that the cells from neonates are extremely regenerative and perform better than adult stem cells,” said the study's senor author Dr. Sunjay Kaushal, associate professor of surgery at Maryland and director of pediatric cardiac surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Dr. Bruce Reitz, chief heart surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the man who pioneered the heart-lung transplant, said yesterday he will leave Baltimore to direct the heart and chest surgery program at Stanford University.He will begin work at Stanford in July, specializing in pediatric heart surgery, and in January will succeed his mentor, Dr. Norman Shumway, a world-renowned surgeon who performed the nation's first heart transplant 24 years ago.Dr. Shumway, 69, will step down as chairman of Stanford's department of cardiac and thoracic surgery but will continue working there for some time, according to a Stanford spokesman.

MedStar Health is asking a court to block new open-heart surgery regulations, charging that the Maryland Health Care Commission "arbitrarily and capriciously `cooked the books' " to justify an additional open-heart program in Maryland's Washington suburbs. MedStar, with headquarters in Columbia, owns seven hospitals, including Washington Hospital Center, which runs the dominant heart surgery program in the District of Columbia and its Maryland suburbs. MedStar also does open-heart surgery at Georgetown University Hospital, and is hoping for that program to grow.

THE highest-paid people in American higher education aren't presidents. They aren't administrators. They aren't business professors and others currently in high demand. They are professors in medical schools.The Chronicle of Higher Education is just out with its annual listing of the salaries earned by presidents and the five highest-paid employees at 25 prestigious private universities in 1988-89. At not one school did a president earn as much as his (or her, in the lone case of Hanna H. Gray of the University of Chicago)

James F. Bell, an internationally recognized expert in the diverse fields of solid mechanics, surgical pumps and the physics of music, died of cancer at his Baltimore residence Jan. 15. He was 80.In recognition of his accomplishments and tenure at the Johns Hopkins University, where he had been a faculty member of the School of Engineering since 1945, he was awarded the university President's Medal four days before his death.He conducted research in nonlinear mechanics and dynamic plasticity in metals.

The federal agency responsible for investigating Medicare fraud and other health law violations, and whose probe of St. Joseph Medical Center led to a leadership shake-up last month, has ordered a group of cardiology specialists affiliated with the hospital to hand over business records. Midatlantic Cardiovascular Associates, a dominant cardiology practice at hospitals in the Baltimore area, received a subpoena from the Department of Health and Human Services in June - the month the agency made a similar demand of St. Joseph, according to documents shared with The Baltimore Sun and sources connected to the hospital.

The words "perseverance" and "heart" are often used by wrestling coaches when discussing Centennial freshman Nathan Kraisser. Those words have a deeper meaning for his family, however. When Kraisser was 2, doctors told his parents their son had a hole in his heart and needed surgery. They took him to Children's Hospital in Washington, and doctors there cut into his chest, inserted white Dacron velour cloth into the hole and sewed his chest back together. "The day they told me he was going to have to have that surgery was the worst day of my life," said his mother, Kerri Kraisser.

Eileen Clemenzi, a 56-year-old hairdresser from Vero Beach, Fla., had a great time in Malaysia this summer. She loved the malls, the beaches and the attentive service she got from hotel staff, including a bellboy who sent her a jade Buddha after she got home. But the best part of her overseas adventure was getting a new hip at Gleneagles Medical Centre in Penang - a surgical procedure that Clemenzi could never have afforded at home with no health insurance and an annual income of $30,000.

Last year, Kevin Marsh had an operation to close a small hole in his heart. He'd had a stroke, and doctors worried that the opening could increase his chances of having another. Since then, Marsh has not had another stroke. The procedure had another benefit, too: He no longer suffers from the debilitating migraine headaches that had troubled him for decades. "The change is incredible," says the 50-year-old, who restores vintage cars in Salt Lake City. "I have not had one headache since the surgery."

Dr. Jonathan Drummond-Webb, 45, a pediatric heart surgeon featured on national television for his transplants and other cardiac surgery on children, was found dead Sunday at his home in Little Rock, Ark. Dr. Drummond-Webb committed suicide by taking an overdose of medication, according to Arkansas Children's Hospital, where he had been chief of pediatric and congenital cardiac surgery for the last three years. Friends said the surgeon, who once described himself as "a bit of an extreme personality," suffered a sudden bout of depression.

Existing limits on angioplasties protect patients Doctors, health professionals and hospital administrators who argue that medical centers not currently licensed to perform heart surgery should be allowed to perform angioplasties are once again putting the almighty dollar ahead of patients' well-being ("Money is a pervasive presence in arguments over angioplasties," Jan. 9). There can be no dispute that thousands of patients across Maryland have been saved and the quality of their lives improved because of successful angioplasties.

Over the objection of a group of Maryland hospitals that perform open-heart surgery, the Maryland Health Care Commission approved an update to the state health plan yesterday that would permit a new open-heart program in the Washington suburbs but no new program in the Baltimore area. This is not the first time the commission has approved the plan. It voted in favor of the concept last month; yesterday's action was on the regulations to put the concept into effect. Nor is it the end of the process.

Eileen Clemenzi, a 56-year-old hairdresser from Vero Beach, Fla., had a great time in Malaysia this summer. She loved the malls, the beaches and the attentive service she got from hotel staff, including a bellboy who sent her a jade Buddha after she got home. But the best part of her overseas adventure was getting a new hip at Gleneagles Medical Centre in Penang - a surgical procedure that Clemenzi could never have afforded at home with no health insurance and an annual income of $30,000.

Anne Heches marries Laffoon Saturday Actress Anne Heche, 32, married cameraman Coleman Laffoon, 27, on Saturday during a ceremony held at a villa near downtown Los Angeles, according to the Associated Press. The couple met while Heche was making a documentary about then-girlfriend Ellen DeGeneres' return to stand-up comedy, following the cancellation of her ABC sitcom Ellen. Heche and DeGeneres parted ways in August of last year, after having been together for three years. Hope remains in hospital Comedian Bob Hope will remain in the hospital for at least a few more days as he fights to recover from pneumonia, his physician said yesteraday.

MedStar Health is asking a court to block new open-heart surgery regulations, charging that the Maryland Health Care Commission "arbitrarily and capriciously `cooked the books' " to justify an additional open-heart program in Maryland's Washington suburbs. MedStar, with headquarters in Columbia, owns seven hospitals, including Washington Hospital Center, which runs the dominant heart surgery program in the District of Columbia and its Maryland suburbs. MedStar also does open-heart surgery at Georgetown University Hospital, and is hoping for that program to grow.