Capsules

Though Air Force Sergeant Tor Olson, 22, might be called a washout of sorts, he is anything but unhappy about that appellation. In March, the 145-lb. Olson was comatose and near death from liver failure brought on by hepatitis. Today he is not only alive but well, thanks to the first successful flushing, or "total body washout," of a patient's circulatory system. Colonel Gerald Klebanoff of Wilford Hall Air Force Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, attempted the pioneering procedure af-ter Olson had been in a coma for three days and showed no indications of reviving. Klebanoff and his team hooked the unconscious airman to a conventional heart-lung machine that pumped the toxic blood from his body. In place of the blood they introduced a clear salt solution that cooled Olson's body to 85DEG. This reduced the brain's need for oxygen and hence guarded against damage while the treatment progressed. The solution also flushed Olson's vital organs of disease-produced toxins. Finally the salt solution was replaced by fresh blood from carefully matched donors. Olson, who was totally without blood for about ten minutes, awoke almost immediately after the procedure, and has since shown no evidence of brain impairment. Doctors following his progress report that his body is gradually replacing the donor blood with its own, and that his liver has begun to regenerate itself.

> Insect stings are a common warm-weather hazard. Except in rare cases of serious shock, treatment is often omitted. But a cheap and effective antidote is readily available in the kitchen, according to a letter in the A.M.A. Journal by Dr. Harry Arnold Jr., a Honolulu dermatologist. His prescription: a quarter-teaspoon of meat tenderizer dissolved in a teaspoon or two of water and rubbed into the skin around the bite. Meat tenderizer, Arnold explains, is rich in papain, a protein-dissolving enzyme, which breaks down the venom. Arnold says that a dose of meat tenderizer will stop the pain of most insect stings in seconds if applied immediately.

> Medicine and marriage do not mix, says the prevailing shibboleth. Doctors are so dedicated to their work, or exposed to so many tempting romantic opportunities, that they have more divorces than members of other professions. Not so, say Dr. Irving Rosow of the Langley Porter Institute and K. Daniel Rose, a senior medical student at the University of California. The pair recently analyzed all divorce, separate maintenance and annulment actions filed in California during a six-month period. Their report in California Medicine shows that doctors' marriages are, if anything, more stable than those of many other professionals. Authors, the pair found, had the highest problem rate, followed by social scientists, architects and college faculty members. Physicians ranked eleventh among the twelve professional categories considered (the most steadfast were natural scientists).

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