For a painful condition caused by an inadequate flow of blood to the heart, some patients can be helped enormously by operations in which their arteries are revamped to send more blood to the heart muscle (TIME, June 28. 1948). But many victims have such enlarged and feeble ("failing") hearts that they cannot withstand the drastic operation, so doctors can only send them home to drag out a few months of painful invalidism.
One such case seemed to be Horace Watkins, 52, an Ontario electrical inspector. When he entered Montreal's Jewish General Hospital, he could walk only six steps before pain and...