photo credit: Ashley Fraser
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Putting an artificial heart
into someone was big and bold. Has medicine lost its
pioneering spirit? I think there's an element of
that. It's not because there's a lack of people with
great initiative and intelligence and knowledge. But
now the system is so complex and there are so many ethical
approvals required.
Noella Leclair died last year.
How did you take the news? Well, I knew she was
probably at the end of her tether. It didn't occur in
spectacular fashion — she'd been going downhill.
She was enormously grateful for the 20 years she got.
Her death was almost a celebration.
Did you see her much over the
years? We became very good friends. She was such
a wonderful person.
Is the dream of whole artificial
hearts dead? Total cardiac replacement longterm
is not on the horizon right now. The pumps won't be
good enough for 10 or 15 years.
What's the most exciting advance
in cardiac care in the last decade? The knowledge
that could allow us to effectively prevent heart attacks.
The science is there to do it, but we still haven't
been able to prevent the disease.
Do you get frustrated when patients
won't make the effort to change their lifestyle?
Talking to patients after an operation I'd say "Your
heart looks just awful. Your arteries are full of porridge.
If you don't radically change your lifestyle you may
get five years. If you do change, you may get 35." You
really felt sorry for the ones who just couldn't make
the change.
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5 things you didn't know about...
Wilbert Keon
His review of Brian Mulroney's
controversial new memoir He wrote it himself,
which is unusual, and I think he opened himself
to a bit of criticism because he was just being
himself. So what? Brian Mulroney was a truly great
Prime Minister and I think history will judge
him as one of the best.
His sweet ride I was
addicted to fine cars for years — I still
am. As a kid I used to read Popular Mechanics
and I vowed if I ever got the money together I'd
buy a Jaguar. I did in '72. I don't think anyone's
ever built a car as beautiful since.
His twinkle toes My wife
and I used to dance quite a bit. Mostly waltzes,
but we still swing out and do whatever the kids
are doing. For a while there we got into the more
exotic dances, like the cha-cha and so forth.
His size-up of Stephen Harper
He's really growing with the job. He's a
bit shy, which is difficult for a politician,
but when it comes to doing the job he's very,
very sincere and I think he's doing a very good
job with a minority government.
His 'Papa' predilection
I loved The Old Man and the Sea. I visited Hemingway's
studio down in the Panhandle. I read all his books.
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A lot of surgeons listen to
music in the OR. Did you prefer rock, jazz...? I
didn't allow it. I didn't allow conversation that wasn't
related to the surgery.
Total silence? Yes.
Wow. Did your staff think you
were a tyrant? Some of them objected at first, but
it became a matter of course. I think the major reason
I had such wonderful success is because I never subjected
the patient to extra time in the operating room. I required
total concentration from everyone on the team, so we
could get it done quickly and perfectly, and get the
patient out.
In 1999 you were nabbed in a
police prostitution sting but you weren't charged. You
said afterward, "I deal with life and death in here
and sometimes nothing else mattered." How can doctors
avoid getting to that point? You have to be careful
because that kind of thing can overwhelm you so that
you're not thinking of anything else.
Was there counselling available
to help you cope? I never sought that. I was always
religious and I had a wonderful wife and family and
wonderful staff at the Ottawa Heart Institute. They
were my extended family and we always shared the good
times and the bad times.
Would you ever donate your heart
to the plastified human body exhibition, Body Worlds?
No, I'd donate it to somebody else, but not to that
[laughs]. Anyway, I've signed my organ donor cards already.
A few years ago, you and Michael
Kirby came out in favour of more private delivery in
our healthcare system. It's inevitable. The way
we're delivering healthcare now is too expensive. There's
inertia because there's no competition. I don't think
there's any evidence that this sort of thing has ever
worked.
You're an English Quebecer.
What do you make of the "nation" status? The francophone
population of Quebec wouldn't have settled for less.
But I think the majority of them, having got that far,
won't want to go any further, which I think is wonderful.
What was your first job?
I stoked the fires in Sheenboro when I went to school
there. I used to get up and serve seven o'clock Mass
and then I went and lit the morning fire at the school.
You're the youngest of 13 kids.
What was it like having so many siblings? It was
pretty wonderful. I'm lucky to be here and glad to be
alive.
Your cousin is legendary Maple
Leafs player Davey Keon. Did you ever want to be a hockey
player instead of a heart surgeon? Everybody did,
I was no different. But when I turned 17 my mother forbade
me to play. She thought I was too small to be out there
with those big goons. So she ended my career.
Davey's success didn't change
her mind? No, she was contemptuous of hockey. I
was home one time for the playoffs when Toronto beat
Montreal three to nothing and Davey scored all three
goals. I went into the kitchen each time he scored to
tell her and I'd say, "Davey's surviving out there,
he hasn't been killed yet." I laid it it on pretty thick
and by the third goal I really let her have it [laughs].
The Leafs haven't won the Stanley
Cup since Davey's four in a row in the 60s. Some fans
call it the "Keon Curse." They should have retired
his sweater!
Who's your pick for this year's
cup? I think the Senators have a very good shot.
Interview by Gillian Woodford
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