To the Heart of the Matter - By Dan C. Ehlert
   Today, whether it is due to the stress of our current life styles
 or whether it is due to man's continuing failure to keep in proper
 physical shape, the occurrences of cardiac failure continue to soar.
 Today, medical heart problems are major contributors to America's
 death toll. Today, coronary by-pass surgery Is almost common. Heart
 replacement surgery is limited only by the availability of donor
 organs. Neither of these operations would have been possible without
 the invention of the artificial heart and lung machine.
     Also, human blood is a key ingredient in all surgical operations
 especially coronary procedures. Today's procedures are enhanced by
 the use of blood cell platelets. Whole blood has a finite shelf life,
 but blood cell platelets alone can be stored for a protracted period
 of time. Blood donations can be repeated much more frequently, some-
 times weekly, if the whole blood donation is separated into platelets
 and into plasma.  The platelet cells are reserved for future use,
 while the plasma is returned to the donor. This separation is per-
 formed by a machine called a hemo-centrifuge.
     Both of these machines were invented by one and the same man. He
 was not a famous surgeon like Dr. DeBakey. Dr. Bernard, or Dr. Beck
 but rather. he was an engineer. Actually, he was an engineer who had
 never completed college or earned a degree. However, in private and
 secret research this engineer invented the hemo-centrifuge in 1932;
 in 1935 he invented the artificial heart and lung machine. His con-
 tribution of these inventions is now almost forgotten. He co-authored
 a book with Dr. A. Carrel entitled "The Culture of Organs." He re-
 ceived the Pulitzer Prize, but it was for another book published some
 fifteen years later.
     As Americans and, we bask in the reflected glory of this man,
 not only because he was the inventor of these vital machines that
 mean so very much to cardiac patients but also because of his daring
 to do what no man had ever done before. You see, he also loved to
 fly. He flew the first air mail run from Chicago to St. Louis. He
 set a speed record for flying from California to New York. He was
 the first to fly nonstop from New York to Paris (over the Atlantic
 Ocean). He was, of course. Charles A. Lindbergh. "Lucky Lindy,"
 "The Lone Eagle," the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book "The
 Spirit of St. Louis," and the same man who had also invented the
 hemo-centrifuge blood machine nd the artificial heart and lung
 machine--That goes to the heart of the matter!
    Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born February 4, 1902, in Detroit,
 Michigan and died August 26, 1974. He was the only child of Congress-
 man C. A. Lindbergh, Sr. (Minnesota, 1907/17) and Evangeline Lodge
 Land. He attended the University of Wisconsin (1918-20, engineering)
 and went to U.S. Flying Service School, 1924. He was in the U.S. Army
 Reserve, became brigadier general and a civilian consultant to U.S.
 Air Corps, and flew fifty combat missions.(Over 50 as a civilian and
 shot down several Japanese aircraft.  Jim)  He was awarded the Con-
 gressional Medal of Honor and the Pulitzer Prize and others.
     He was a Life member of Keystone Lodge No. 243, St. Louis,
 Missouri; M.M., December 15, 1926.
 September 1997 Knight Templar
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