Veritas, Vol. 32, No. 07, April 1992

              For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
April 1992 Volume 32 Number 7
operates on 12-year-old boy
Pediatric heart
À surgical team at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center recently performed heart transplant surgery on 12-year-old Erik Compton—the youngest heart transplant recipient in South Florida and the second patient for the medical center's pediatric heart transplant program.
Richard A. Perryman, associate professor of cardiovascular surgery and director of the pediatric heart transplant program, performed the procedure on February 26. Michael Horowitz, assistant professor of cardiovascular surgery specializing in heart transplantation, retrieved the donor heart and assisted Perryman with the transplant.
Erik came through the operation with no complications and was released March 11, returning home just two weeks after the transplant.
From music to
When the music engineering department moves into its new studio in the soon-to-be built L. Austin Weeks Center for Recording and Performance, director Ken Pohlmann and his students can be assured of perfect acoustics. That’s because they will have tested them before the building was even constructed.
With the help of ten new IBM computers, the department can enter an acoustic model of the new recording studio into the IBM
system.
“We’ll be able to enter music into the computer and listen to it as it will sound in the building after it’s constructed,” says Pohlmann. “We can make sure our acoustics are right before they even start laying the bricks and mortar. All we’ve been lacking are the powerful host computers.”
The music engineering department is just one of the recipients of more than 700 computers the University of Miami received in its recent corporate partnership with IBM. The Sl6 million transaction, affecting more than 30 areas of study and research, will bring state-of-the-art computer technology to the University.
Jim Shelley, director of academic
transplant team
According to Perryman, the entire process went very smoothly—from retrieval of the donor organ, which took place outside South Florida, to transporting the donor heart, to surgery, and recovery.
“Transplantation is a team effort,” says Perryman, “and Erik’s case showed us that we work very well together as a team.”
Tala Geith, nurse coordinator for heart transplantation and nurse-liaison for pediatric cardiology, played a crucial role in the team effort. As central coordinator for all aspects of the process, she first received the call from organ procurement that a donor heart was available and then contacted all parties involved, including Lee Ann Pearse, assistant professor of pediatrics specializing in cardiac transplantation and catheterization;
and research systems in Information Resources, played an integral role in determining where the computers would go and is helping to get the student computer labs up and running.
The eight members of the Information Resources MicroGroup are available to help faculty and staff with any problems they encounter.
“The impact of these computers is almost incalculable,” says Shelley. “This is going to let almost any faculty member or student have access to this equipment, which we’ve never had in the past. Very few universities have this kind of access to top flight equipment.”
Students at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, who up until recently fit into that category, now have access to ten IBM PCs with high resolution color monitors, which are located in public places. Students can sit at any computer and be able to use them for numerical modeling, word processing, or electronic mail, or to retrieve any of their files or access the supercomputers throughout the international network. Internet. RSMAS will also be receiving eight Digital Equipment Corporation work stations with which students can run large models, according to Hank
Perryman; the operating room; the surgical staff; and Erik’s family.
“Basically,” says Geith, “I see that all the steps are followed in the right order and that all the connections are made along the way. It’s a great way to be a part of the effort.”
The surgery itself, which Perryman says is now an accepted modality for pediatric cardiomyopathy, was very straightforward. Erik’s new heart “functioned very well right from the start.”
But transplantation is not a one-step process. Medical management is particularly intense immediately after transplant. For the first three to six months, the team will be watching Erik for signs of rejection and infection. His heart will be biopsied once a week for four to six weeks. Erik takes several medications daily to prevent rejection, to ward off
Poor, w ho has been director of the RSMAS computing center* for 20 years.
“The students never had access to PCs or high speed work stations,” says Poor. “They are a major increment in the support that students get.
infection, and to control blood pressure and fluid retention. He has also been placed on a low-fat diet and a three-month, cardiac rehabilitation exercise program.
“It may seem like a lot for a 12-year-old,” says Pearse. “But Erik is wonderful. He has a real positive attitude. For him, it’s the second chance he’s been waiting for.”
Erik has additional support, and a role model, in Bruce Brown, the medical center’s first pediatric heart transplant patient, who is now one year posttransplant.
“Bruce is very supportive,” says Geith. “He visits Erik often and lends the kind of support and empathy that only one who has been through it can. Bruce is now an important part of the team.”
—Debra Wall Thielen
This opens up problems for them they wouldn’t have been able to solve before.”
The 50 computers that the School of Communication received
continued on the next page
medicine: high-tech uses for new IBMs
Music engineering director Ken Pohlmann and students Leslie Jensen and Brent Verrill become acquainted with the department’s new IBM computers.