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elephants with long-bladed spears. This would require sometimes two teams, one on each
side, taking on the mastodons with agile, fast running, fit hunters who could get in close, throw
stones, axes, or spears, and quickly jump back if a trunk was swung by the elephant to defend
itself. In the case of the Zulus, they would drive the animals onto narrow paths on
mountainsides and then the brave would run in and cut the rear leg tendons so that the animals
could not get away. And, similarly, when hunting big game, there would be a crowd of
followers, admirers, women folk, and children watching the hunt with interest, ready to help
the injured, celebrate the success, and share the spoils. When the Nguni tribes lined up to have
a fight they threw spears at each other before Shaka's time, protecting themselves with shields,
and the women, older men and children would sit and watch the action, help injured, and at the
end everybody would go home hand have some good beer. It seems this is all deeply ingrained
in our psyche and hence also the success of sports channels that broadcast the action and
advertise beer.
There are clearly professions that have had modern versions prophetic visionary healers,
revered for what they could do; Einstein, Churchill and past presidents, for example. In the
1960s and 70s heart surgeons such as Chris Barnard, Michael DeBakey, Stanley Crawford,
and Denton Cooley were incredible leaders for their innovation and ability to heal the sick. I
still have the charming letter Chris Barnard wrote to me offering a job with him, but sadly once
he developed arthritis and stopped operating there was no pointing in training with him. I
chose to train at the Cleveland Clinic with Bruce and Drs. Loop and Cosgrove, and later with
Drs. DeBakey and Crawford in Houston which turned out by providence into the best that
could have happened to me and I was blessed by the turn of events.
When I first met Denton Cooley in 1982 he told me some interesting stories about Chris
Barnard and his brother Marius. One of the stories he told was that Marius had been on
DeBakey's rotation but was asked to leave because he was asking too many questions and then
he went on to join Cooley. One day Cooley asked Marius what is brother Chris was like as a
surgeon. Cooley has also spent time with Lillehei in Minnesota where Chris had first become
interested in heart surgery. Norman Shumway had also been trained there. Marius said, as
related by Cooley, that “He is no good as a surgeon.” Chris was not known as technically
gifted surgeon but rather for his innovative ideas and intellect. Cooley said “shortly after that,
Chris did the first heart transplant!” It was a feat that stunned the world and sent people into a
feverish debate about the issue of where ones “heart” is and how to define death. When I asked
Vincent Gott, the former head of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins, about Chris Barnard, he
related the story I told earlier that he needed some help with his experiment. Just then Chris
walked by in the corridor and Gott called out to him and asked him to help with a heart lung
machine which he did. At the time Chris was working on duodenal atresia and cutting off the
blood supply to the duodenum in dogs, proving that the cutoff blood supply caused atresia.
After that Chris changed his focus and interest to cardiac surgery. As a fellow, Chris also
helped Lillehei with managing his patients. Once at a dinner reception, after talking about our
common Scandinavian roots and him coming from a small island off the Norwegian coast, I
asked Lillihei what Chris was like. Lillihei said he never took notes but never forgot what he
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