Medicine: Upside-Down Valve

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Mrs. Raymond G. Wilmer, 47, a housewife in the Cleveland suburb of Parma, had a mitral valve so scarred from rheumatic fever that it did not let enough blood flow from the left auricle into the left ventricle. Often such valves can be repaired with a deft scalpel: many are now replaced with artificial valves. But Mrs. Wilmer's valve was too damaged for repair, and scarring left no room for an artificial implant.

Fortunately, Heart Surgeon Earle B. Kay had a third technique ready to try. At St. Vincent Charity Hospital he had recently set up a bank of human heart valves removed from accident victims and waiting to be used in an ingenious manner developed by his associate, Dr. Akio Suzuki. Because mitral valves have proved unsatisfactory for transplants, Dr. Kay selected an aortic valve from the bank, turned it upside down so that it would permit blood flow in the proper direction, and stitched it in place. There was little danger of transplant rejection, because heart-valve tissue has a negligible blood supply. Last week, two months after her operation, Mrs. Wilmer used the most familiar housewifely way to show how well she felt. She baked a cake.