Word: fatalism
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While armed guards kept outsiders out, a Navy board of inquiry last week continued hearings into the death of the nuclear submarine Thresher. Much of the testimony, taken from Thresher crewmen who were on leave during the sub's fatal test cruise, and from technicians and nuclear-power experts, was classified as secret. But what did become public was enough to make any landlubber stay just that...
...pressure system had been leaky. To surface in an emergency, a submarine must have high air pressure to blow water from its ballast tanks and give buoyancy. In a flooding situation, anything less than full pressure would drastically slow down water ejection from the tanks-a fatal defect at Thresher's maximum depth. »Portsmouth workers installed 20% of the hydraulic-system valves backwards, inspected and approved their handiwork in that condition. When a control switch was pressed, a mechanical reaction occurred opposite to what was intended. For example, pushing a "down" button on the periscope caused...
...toward heart surgery with his pioneering patent-ductus operation (to shut off a vessel that is necessary during fetal life, but should close automatically soon after birth). He followed this with a more daring operation in 1946 to remove a narrowed section of the aorta-a crippling and potentially fatal defect with which some babies are born. Baltimore's Dr. Al fred Blalock opened the field for surgery directly on a malformed heart with the first blue-baby operation, which he devised in 1944 with Pediatrician Helen Taussig...
...colleague, Dr. Cooley, did the first operation to remove an aneurysm (a thin, ballooned-out section) from the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber. He tried putting a patient on the heart-lung machine two years ago while he removed a "pulmonary embolism," a usually fatal blood clot in the pulmonary artery. Now. with three successes logged, Cooley believes the procedure should be made generally available, with disposable oxygen kits ready in all major hospitals...
...said Fulbright, even if the Russians have no plans for open warfare, "neither are they likely to commit fatal blunders of judgment which will lead to defeat and destruction." He said that in taking account of Russia, the United States must bear in mind that it is dealing with a nation accustomed to "patience, circumspection, and flexibility...