Mount Zion History
1957 - 1967
Dr. Uhley's Pacemaker
From the San Francisco Chronicle, December 12, 1958
PG&E Still Keeps Patient's Heart Going
The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. -- with the help of
a team of expert Mount Zion Hospital Physicians -- still kept the heart
of 68 year old Samuel Zivian pumping steadily away yesterday.
Zivian's damaged heart has been running under the influence of tiny electric shocks since Saturday, when an amazing electic "pacemaker" plugged into a regular floor outlet took over the job.
Zivian who lives at 58 Seventh Ave., suffered a coronary heart attack four years ago.
Over the years he had been kept alive with a drug which stimulated his heart to pump blood, since his own natural pacemaker (the nervous impulse which controls the heartbeat) had partially failed.
DRUG FAILS
Last week Zivian developed a resistance to the drug, and Mount Zion doctors, having heard of a similiar case in the East, turned to the electric pacemaker.
They had to send to New York for a special tiny electrode, but the essential parts of the machine were already at hand, having been put together with $25 worth of spare parts by Dr. Herman Uhley, an experimental cardiologist.
WIRED TO MACHINE
Last Saturday Zivian was wired to the machine, a box which is plugged into the standard electrical system and which tames the power down to five volt shocks, spaced to pump the heart at the rate of 52 beats per minute.
The connection with Zivian's heart is made from the control box by a electrode tipped wire which is threaded into an arm vein and pushed up until the electrode jabs into the heart muscle from inside the upper right chamber.
Mount Zion Memories
Selected videos from the Fishbon Library Video Newsletter, including an interview with Dr. Herman Uhley, are available here.