Dartmouth Medicine HomeCurrent IssueAbout UsContact UsSearchPodcasts

PDF Version   Printer-Friendly Version

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

The Dufek File


I would extremely like to be operated upon by you on your way back to your country and that's why I try to speed up the affair. I rely only on your kind offer of sending me at worst your pacemaker which would then be implanted in me by the clinic in Prague. Without your kind help I should never get hold of a pacemaker and that is why I am very much obliged to you for your friendly and exceptional help. I always hope that we shall succeed in meeting either in Moscow or this country, if not in May then towards the end of June.

The next item in my "Dufek File" is a letter I received three weeks later from Washington, D.C.—from the director of surgery in the Veterans Administration's Central Office. He was a friend, and a very decent chap, but only one small cog in the very large bureaucracies involved in this case.

"I have reviewed your correspondence with Dr. Dufek," my friend wrote, "and the appended questions to me and the other authorities here in Central Office. While I feel that there should be no problem in your doing the operation, either in Moscow or Prague, and certainly no issue in using the pacemaker without cost to the patient, these things and many others are under consideration in our State Department. Until a decision is rendered at that level, we all regret that there is nothing we can do but wait."

Wait we did. Ultimately, all the obstacles were removed. I think the potential propaganda value of the operation for the U.S. played a role in the favorable outcome. In any event, the next item in the file is a letter from Dr. Dufek:

Prague, June 7, 1962
I have just received news from the Ministry of Health to say that you may get the visa in the Czechoslovakian Embassy in Moscow on the 12th of June approximately. I shall arrange your accommodation in the Hotel Internationale, mostly occupied by foreigners. Otherwise, you will be the guest of the Institute headed by Prof. Spacek, with whom I have settled all details. Our ministry let me know that you must fill in only the date of your arrival here. The rest will be settled here. As mail is sometimes a bit late here, I think it best to cable the date and hour of your arrival. As I may be hospitalized at that time, there will be somebody from the Institute staff to await you at the airport. Please bring along the demonstration film you mentioned having in your possession, as there is considerable interest here in this device.

Above: Author Tim Takaro (center) in Moscow, with two Russian surgeons, before he left for Prague. Below: Dr. Bill Chardack (left), the coinventor of the first implantable pacemaker.

There was one more letter that arrived from Dr. Dufek before I left Moscow:

Prague, June 24, 1962
Dear Dr. Takaro: Many thanks for your cablegram. I feel extremely happy to find all arranged. I've visited the American Embassy yesterday and was received with utmost kindness by Mr. James Ward, the vice consul, who expressed his satisfaction at my having succeeded in establishing a cooperation between you and our doctors. It was a hard job lasting almost half a year. And sorry to say accomplished only by me and my family.

An operation theatre with assistants will be at your disposal. Dr. Spacek and Prof. Navratil, who specializes in cardiac surgery, would also like to take part. An assistant who has been half a year in the U.S.A. begged me to ask whether the life of the batteries of a pacemaker isn't affected by the pacemaker not being implanted; and what is your view on the problem of tissue forming on the electrodes in the myocardium. How long can the pacemaker be expected to function before the batteries wear out? Please excuse these questions but we want, as you see, to make full use of your knowledge to increase our rather limited experience in this field. We shall be grateful for all information and would like to continue being in touch with you and at the same time following developments of the pacemaker. I would like to have other questions discussed with you, and therefore a friend of mine will be present as interpreter for us not to waste time. My written English is superior to my spoken, but I hope to speak fluently when we next meet. Actually, my daughter, Daniela,

"I would extremely like to be operated upon by you on your way back to your country," wrote the Czech cardiologist. "Without your kind help I should never get hold of a pacemaker and that is why I am very much obliged to you."

aged 12, is also studying English and is almost as good as I am. She and my wife are both expecting also to meet you.

There is a lively interest in the pacemaker from various workers, and I would beg you to let them see it only in your presence so as to avoid any possible damage owing to an extreme curiosity or mishandling. That would be a tragedy after such long negotiations and so many troubles.

I would like to meet you at the airport and thus give you a welcome to this country with both my wife and daughter. Please let me know as soon as possible the day and hour of your coming here, best by cable.

At last all the pieces were in place, after


Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Back to Table of Contents

Dartmouth Medical SchoolDartmouth-Hitchcock Medical CenterWhite River Junction VAMCNorris Cotton Cancer CenterDartmouth College