Richard Durham's Destination Freedom

Scripts From Radio's Black Legacy, 1948-1950

 (originally broadcast August 8, 1948)

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[This was Richard Durham's most-praised radio production, one for which he was awarded first-place honors in a competition sponsored by the Institute for Education by Radio, and one that was restaged in 1957 on the prestigious CBS Radio Workshop. In this drama about the accomplishments of pioneering heart surgeons, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (1856-­1931) and Dr. Ulysses Grant Dailey (1885-1961), Durham probed one of the most significant contributions made by black doctors to American medicine: the first successful suturing of the human heart as performed by Dr. Williams in 1893. In terms of the production, two devices make this an especially compelling drama: The narrative role assumed by a human heart offers a compelling perspective on the medical technique de­veloped by Drs. Williams and Dailey, and the repetitive sound of heartbeats heard during much of the script adds relentless urgency to the unfolding story line.]

SINGER: Oh freedom, Oh freedom,
Oh freedom over me,
And before I'd be a slave,
I'll be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be free.

ANNOUNCER: Destination Freedom!

(MUSIC: Theme up and to background)

ANNOUNCER: The Chicago Defender and station WMAQ bring you Destination Freedom, a new radio series dramatizing the great democratic traditions of the Negro people, interwoven in the pageant of history and a part of Amer­ica's own Destination Freedom!

(MUSIC: Up and out)

ANNOUNCER: Today Destination Freedom tells the unique story of Dr. Ulysses Grant Dailey and of Dr. Daniel Williams, one of the first surgeons to perform successful sutures on the human heart, in a chapter entitled "The Heart of George Cotton" (long pause).

HEART: I am the human heart (pause for the beat).

(SOUND: Begin the beating of a human heart, slightly faster than normal)

(MUSIC: Drums emphasize and deepen the beat. Organ pulses in rhythm. Establish well; then hold sound and drums under following)

HEART: I am the spirit's rhythm.

HEART: I am a hollow bag the size of your fist. I live in a cavity between two lungs. I am the timekeeper of human life: fair; impartial; equal to Turk or Tartar, Roman, Greek, Ethiop, Hebrew. I am old: I circulated blood for Cro-Magnons, Neanderthals, Rhodesians, and if in men I have been the lion and the lamb, the love and the hate—if in men the good is often interred with their bones, so let it be with my blood. (Quieter) So let it be in my story of the men who mastered me, who learned the laws of my veins and lobes, arteries and auricles, who timed my twisting to planet precision, who fought to heal me whenever I was ripped and split (slow up the heart) outstretched on a table in the breast of a dying man—

(SOUND: Up full with the heartbeat, slower than normal and ponderous. Establish and take down under following, and hold sound in background)

PATIENT: (On filter. Labored breathing) Doctor! That's my heart beating. Like a drum in my ears—it's loud, so loud! Can't you hear it?

NURSE: (Close, hushed) His lips are moving, Doctor Dailey, but I can't hear him.

DAILEY: (Close, tense, listening) His heart must be beating—but my stethoscope hardly picks up a sound—

PATIENT: (Filter) Oh, doctor—can't you hear it yet—can't you?

DAILEY: How long has he been here?

NURSE: The ambulance just brought him in. I called you right away­—

DAILEY: (Rapid check) You checked his pulse, respiration, temperature—

NURSE: (Fire back) Pulse rapid, thready: 130. Respiration: 30. Temperature 105.

DAILEY: (Searching) Good Lord—if they had only brought him in sooner. This wound goes down to...(catches). Wait—I think I've found where—(Herein slow down and fade heart nearly out)

PATIENT: (Filter. Fearfully looking back) Doctor, I'm trying to tell you. It hap­pened the night I got paid. I went out to sit on the beach, to watch the sun risin'. Some men came up, wanted my money. I hit one. Then somethin' hit my chest...dipped in like a pin. I—I—

DAILEY: (Sudden) His heart's weakening! Nurse, the needle. Adrenalin! Quick!

NURSE: (She's ready for it.) Right here, doctor.

DAILEY: Let it go, let it go!

(MUSIC: A steely sting. A needle of a note. Fade it slowly out as)

(SOUND: Heart picks up almost instantly)

DAILEY: (Relief) That'll hold it awhile. His heart's been hit. Only one thing we can do.

PATIENT: (Filter) There's nothing you can do!...Nothing!

DAILEY: (Steady but with a certain tenseness) Don't let him stir, nurse. Call the emergency staff into the operating room—find his blood type—get the plasma ready—his heart's split—leaking badly. He'll die if we can't sew it up. We've got to operate.

PATIENT: (Filter. Realizes) No—you can't operate on my heart! Not on my heart!

DAILEY: There's one chance in a thousand—if we take it, he may live.

PATIENT: (Filter. Fateful) No, I'll die. You don't fool me. I'll never see the sun rise again,

I know it. You hear that, doctor? I'm talking to you...(fade out). I'm talking to you...

(SOUND: Hold, up until indicated out)

HEART: (As patient fades) Yes, I am the heart, and I speak to you, doctor. You, scrubbing you arms while red sand drips down an hour-glass; dusting your hands with powder; flexing your fingers for the rubber glove; your heart steady; your mind forty years away from a town in Texas, when you were eighteen, when your fingers rolled over the keys of a big piano—

(SOUND: Stop the heart beat with)

(MUSIC: Sudden impact of opening chords of Chopin's Prelude No. 24 in D Minor. If not this, improvise a suitable abstraction)

DAILEY: (Humming over his music)

STEVENS: (Abrupt. A thin, austere Southerner. Trace of bitterness) Dailey! Stop play­ing that! You hear me—stop it!

(MUSIC: Piano stops short.)

DAILEY: (A caught-in-the-act voice. About eighteen) Yes, Doctor Stevens.

STEVENS: I've told you not to play that piano! My wife's dead—let her music rest!

DAILEY: Yes, doctor. I—I didn't expect you'd come in.

STEVENS: (Acid) If it's still music you want to learn, we can stop your medical lessons—

DAILEY: (Anything but that) Oh no, I've given up music. I was just practicing—

STEVENS: (Cut in) Put your fingers to better use than waking up a dead woman! (Pause. Lower) I'm sorry. Excuse my gruffness. I had a hard day at the hospital...and I can't get HER out of my head. (Sinks down) I'm tired. So tired.

DAILEY: (Sympathetically) I knew you'd be...so I finished marking the class papers for you. Would you...want to look them over?

STEVENS: Yes, yes, where are they?

DAILEY: Right here. (Rustle of papers) The final examinations from your surgery students. I've checked over them—here.

STEVENS: (Pause. Pleased) Hmm. Good. You've got a fine head on you boy, even if you're over-curious. (Rustles papers, chuckles) Excellent. What would the white supremists in this town say if they knew I've got a Negro boy not even allowed to enter the medical schools marking my class papers...and a boy named after that Yankee Ulysses Grant on top of it? (Chuckles) Uh­huh. This one's marked right.

DAILEY: (Cut in) Here's an odd one, doctor.

STEVENS: What's odd about it?

DAILEY: I didn't know how to mark it. This student thinks it's possible to sew up the human heart when the fibers are cut. He thinks you can take the needle and—

STEVENS: (Cut in) Operate on the human heart! (Near terror) He's crazy!

DAILEY: (Unheeding) But—he drew a diagram. He thinks if the pericardial sac can be reached before it—

STEVENS: (Rise) I said he's crazy—it can't be done! If it could, wouldn't I have saved HER? Didn't I try it after SHE stabbed herself? Didn't I try it?

DAILEY: (Pause. Understands) Yes, doctor. You did.

STEVENS: (To justify himself) Not just me...but doctors everywhere, in Ger­many, Italy, France, Switzerland, have tried for years and failed. It can't be done. Don't you see that?

DAILEY: I —I see it. How shall I mark the paper?

STEVENS: Zero. (Distraught) Just talking of it makes me hear the way HER heart beat that night. Let me forget it. (Tired) Dailey, you've got nimble fingers and a good head. You know about all I can teach you here. Go north—beat the race quota—get into a medical school. We can heal the kidney, the bladder, the stomach, nigh everything in the body— except the human heart. Like the poet said, the heart's a lonely hunter. And when it's wounded, there's not a chance in a million to heal it. Not a chance in a million.

(SOUND: The heart has come up)

(MUSIC: Drums in with it thunderous and deep. Establish and take slowly down to background)

PATIENT: (Filter) I don't have a chance in a million, do I doctor? Go on—tell me the truth. I'll never see the sun rise again, will I—

NURSE: (Close, sotto whisper) Everything's ready, Doctor Dailey. Dr. Shaw, Dr. Hasbrock, Dr. Roberts assisting.

DAILEY: (Low) Good. Let them look this way. (To all, but low) We cut a window in the chest wall above the heart. A half-circle incision, this way. Every move counts—we can't afford a single slip. (Let it sink in, then) Nurse, scalpel.

NURSE: Yes, doctor (Pause).

(MUSIC: High tension sting and rigid. Keep in background till cued out)

DAILEY: Clamps.

NURSE: Here, doctor.

(SOUND: Up slightly with the heart. Herein begin sounds of metallic clicking of instru­ments very close to mike. Instruments have a certain rhythmic click as they are slapped into the open hand.)

DAILEY: More clamps (pause).

NURSE: Yes, doctor.

DAILEY: (Take a slow fade down on this mike, but hold perfunctory voices in back­ground.) Sponge.

NURSE: Here, doctor (pause)	HEART: (Dead on, tense and still) Yes,
DAILEY: Knife.	doctor, a single slip and I stop.
NURSE: Ready (pause).	To you, I speak with your body bent
DAILEY: Clamps (pause).	over a table under the glare of a
NURSE: Here, doctor.	white light; concentrated on
DOCTOR: Clamps.	a six-inch half-circle; your mind
NURSE: Ready.	following the meaning of the
DAILEY: Suture.	words you spoke decades back in
NURSE: Here (pause).	a college hall when you took an ancient oath.
	PRESIDENT: Repeat after me. I, Ulysses Grant Dailey.
	DAILEY: I, Ulysses Grant Dailey.
	PRESIDENT: Swear by Apollo Physician, by Asclepius, by Health, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses....
	DAILEY: Swear by Apollo Phy­sician, by Asclepius, by Health, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses....

PRESIDENT: Making them my witnesses, that I will carry out this oath and this indenture…

DAILEY: Making them my witnesses, that I will carry our this oath And this indenture…

PRESIDENT: To use treatment to help the sick, according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrong doing ...

DAILEY: To use treatment to help the sick, according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrong doing.

DAILEY: Making them my witnesses, that I will carry out this oath and this indenture ...

PRESIDENT: To use treatment to help the sick, according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrong doing ...

DAILEY: To use treatment to help the sick, according to my ability and judg­ment, but never with a view to injury and wrong doing.

PRESIDENT: (Take him down slowly, and let him continue in perfunctory fashion.) In whatever house I en­ter I shall enter to help the sick, shall abstain from all in­tentional wrong doing and harm.

HEART: (Dead on) He took an oath and carried it out to the letter. He went out to heal me in homes, in hospitals, in clinics across the sea, learning my laws, in Paris, in Rome. Standing by under the white lights while I lay stretched out upon a table... watching the masters try to heal me in Paris—Paris.

(MUSIC: Drum with the heart. Ease out, leave the heart)

DOCTEUR: (French. Play it rapid, tense, hushed till last) Son pouls devient plus en plus fibreux, Docteur Dailey. Infirimière! Avez-vous dressé la transfusion?

INFIRMIÈRE: Oui, Docteur!

DOCTEUR: Des crampons! Encore!

INFIRMIÈRE: Oui, Docteur.

DOCTEUR: Son coeur commence a s'évanouir. L'adrenaline! L'aiguille! Vite! INFIRMIÈRE: C'est prêt!

DOCTEUR: Son coeur devient plus faible. Trouvez une veine et passez-moi l'adrenaline, tout de suite!

(SOUND: The heart suddenly stops.)

DOCTEUR: (Sign of deep regret. Pause) Je vois maintenant. C'est fini.

DOCTEUR: C'est fini. C'est trop tard. La palpitation cesse. Nous y élions très loin. Vous pouvez voir, vous-même, Docteur Dailey. C'est impossible! Im­possible! (Pause)

(MUSIC: On cue, impact of drums in imitation of heartbeat)

(SOUND: Sneak in heart heating. Ease out drums. Keep up the heart in background)

PRIEST: (On close, chant) Confiteor
Deo omnipotenti, beatae Mariae semper
Virgini, beato Michaeli Archangelo,
beato Joanni Baptis­tae, sanctis
Apostolic (fade slowly to background
but keep chant throughout) Petro Ora,
guarda ...

DOTTORE: (Begin with fade down, and keep in close, excited) Dottore. Siamo quasi al cuore. Infermiera, gl'incastri!

INFERMIERA: Si, dottore!

DOTTORE: Spero the possiamo giungere it cuore a tempo. E molto debole, La spunga adesso! INFERMIERA: Eccola, dottore! DOTTORE: Ci siamo. Ecco it cuore. Ora, un ago, Infermiera! Quello lungo! INFERMIERA: Si, dottore. DOTTORE: Bene. Vediamo se posso cucirlo innanzi. Che cada insieme (breathing heavily). INFERMIERA: (Quick) Si, Dottore! (Long pause, Breathing of dottore under this indicating action) (SOUND: Heart stops suddenly.) INFERMIERA: Dottore!

PRIEST:...omnibus sanctis et tibi, pater, quia peccavi nimis cogitatione verbo et opere: mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Ideo precor beatam Mariam semper Virginem, beatum Mi­chaelem Archangelum, beatum Joannen Baptistam, Sanctos Apostolus Petrum et Paulum, omnes Sanctos, et te, pater, orare pro me ad Dominum Deum nos­trum. Misereatur vestri omnipo­tens Deus, et dimissis pecatis vestris, perducat von ad vitam ae­ternam. Indul‑ PRIEST: (Pause) Amen.

HEART: In a cottage in Milan I stopped. Everywhere I stopped when I was wounded, and he went to Berlin to learn more—to work—while on a dark street in Chicago, other men went to work on me. I was in George Cotton. I was walking home with my wife when two men came up to me, grabbed me. I fought back, and then a blade flashed up and struck down!

(SOUND: Body falls to ground)

COTTON: (Throaty gasp as he goes down)

WOMAN: (Alarm) George! George he stabbed you—Help! Hel—(muffled).

SNAKE: (Before muffle) Shut her up, Lefty—shut her up!

LEFTY: (A cool character) I got her. Rifle his pockets before the cops come (Pause). Well, go on, whadda you waitin' for?

SNAKE: (Starts) He—he looks like he's dead.

LEFTY: (Mocks) Now ain't that shockin'? I only stabbed 'em in the heart.

SNAKE: (Doesn't like it) You're too quick with that knife, I told you.

LEFTY: (He's boss.) Rifle his pockets, and stop preachin'—I can't hold this woman all night.

SNAKE: OK, OK, Lefty (pause while he works).

(SOUND: Patting down of body)

SNAKE: (Straightening up) Of all the lousy luck! Ten bucks is all he had.

LEFTY: You're lyin'.

SNAKE: No, Lefty, honest. I cross my heart.

LEFTY: I'll cut out your heart—come across!

SNAKE: (Me of all people) Honest, Lefty, you know I wouldn't lie to you.

LEFTY: (Thunder) Put up or shut up!

SNAKE: (Pause, then who'd-a-thought-it) Well ...I'll be dogged! Two more dead presidents stuck in my hand. Whadda you know about that?

LEFTY: I know you're a liar, and we got to get outta here—

SNAKE: What'll we do with the old lady?

LEFTY: If she knows what's good for her, she'll keep quiet and take her old man to the morgue.

SNAKE: (Conciliatory) There's a real good sawbones up at the hospital there, lady. Doc Dan Williams. He helped me when I—

(SOUND: Far off and nearly faint, a police siren)

LEFTY: (Whip in) Shut up you fool, and pick up your feet! (Fade) Come on, get going. Get goin!

(SOUND: Footsteps running off)

WOMAN: (Bending down) George! Oh George! You're not dead! Oh George! No— (listening) I can still hear your heart—a little—just a little. It's still beat­ing. Oh Lord, let it keep on until I get him to the hospital. Let it keep beating until I get a doctor, somewhere,...somewhere there must be a doctor who can help you...there must be one...somewhere....

(MUSIC: Quick bridge)

GERHARDT: Um der Deutschen Herzgessellschafts Willen moechte ich meme amerikanische Killegen...willkommen heissen. Sie sind alle frei ihre Un­tersuchungen in Berlin und anderswo in Deutschland fortzusetzen. Ich danke ihnen! (Throaty and hesitant very heavy accent) Or—as you say in Eng­lish—I velcome you Doktors to Berlin to do your research on heart surgery!

(SOUND: Cut into with merrymaking and clapping. Shake a bell. It's a banquet.)

MARTIN: (He's toastmaster and a card.) Thank you, Professor Gerhardt.

DELIGHT: You're chief of the heart specialists here, I understand. We'd like to hear of your work.

GERHARDT: Why-1 vanted to ask you—I heard thot in America—you've had successful heart operations—

MARTIN: Successful! You hear that? (Chuckled response) Sure, we've had plenty successful heart operations--only the patients died.

GROUP: (Ad-lib laughs.)

PAINFUL: (Cut in serious) Professor. I understand you German doctors are comin' pretty close to finding a way to suture the heart, that right?

GERHARDT: Vell—I was about to say—it's been done—

MARTIN: I'd like to study under the man who's done that.

GERHARDT: 1-1 didn't mean—here—I meant in Amerika—I read that in Chicago—(suddenly realizes) Chicago. Mein Gott! I forgot. Herr Doktors. There's an American doctor in the next room. He's on the staff of Eickle­berger clinic. I invited him to join us here. Is thot right?

DELIGHT: We'd be deelighted to have him, Professor.

MARTIN: (Assurance) The more the merrier. Maybe he'd like to join the society. Bring him in.

GROUP: (All ad-lib for the joy of it.)

GERHARDT: (Slow fade) Right away, Herr Doktors. He's jost in der other room. Jost in here.

(SOUND: Door opened off mike. Up. Ad-libs "Yes, bring him in," "Go on," "Well, well, well," etc.)

GERHARDT: Here, Herr Doktors. This is Doktor Dailey—(dead air greeting).

DAILEY: (Fade on. Little hesitant) Good evening, everyone. I—I didn't mean to interrupt. The professor said some of my fellow countrymen wanted me to join them—

GERHARDT: (Eager) Ja. Ja. Herr Doktor—sit here by Doctor Martin—

MARTIN: (A painful duty) just a minute, professor. I think you've brought your friend to the wrong place.

GERHARDT: Wrong place?

MARTIN: This society's for doctors—

GERHARDT: (Thinks it's a joke) He's a doctor—

MARTIN: (Pointed) He's not a "white doctor," professor. The society accepts only "white doctors."

GERHARDT: Isn't...a Doctor...a Doctor?

MARTIN: (Impatient) Can't you understand!

GERHARDT: (At loss) I—I never heard of—

DAILEY: (Ease in, patient, slight acid) I'll explain it to you, professor. He means, insofar as his society's concerned, what science proves about the equality of peoples is—just make believe. He believes there's a master race, and he belongs to it. His field is for the few, not the many. He has a disease harder to cure than a heart wound. (Fade) I'll join you in class Herr Professor—in the morning.

(SOUND: Door opened and closed off mike. Pause)

MARTIN: (Low) This is outrageous!

GERHARDT: But I tell you he's one of the best doctors in Berlin. I've noticed his vork.

DELIGHT: (Cut in) But didn't you notice his color?

GERHARDT: (Thinks of it) Color? Ja—ja, I did. (Dawns on him) He's the same color as the man I vas goin' to tell you about in Amerika. Doktor Daniel Williams. The news just come over the vire. Two weeks—ago—July 10, 1893. Doktor Williams completed one of the virst successful operations on the human heart. The patient vas George Cotton (pause). And Herr Doktors, the patient lived!

(MUSIC: Drum strikes in with heartbeat)

(SOUND: Ease in and keep in background, heart beating)

WILLIAMS: (Forty. Terse-talking. Opening as if he's not surprised at it) Yea, Dailey, the patient lived. George Cotton got up and walked in two weeks. So—you­ want—to work as my assistant? What can I teach you you don't already know, but this? Maybe some day you'll get cases exactly like mine. (Heart up a bit) This Cotton. They brought him in one night, stabbed by thugs, his heart struggling to beat. At first it was so faint the stethoscope couldn't pick it up. I searched, and then I found it. (Recalling) I tell you, there may be sounds more beautiful than a human heartbeat, but I've never heard them. I took him into Provident Hospital. Two in the morning. No time for a big staff, fancy equipment. I had to work fast. (Looking at them) Then with these hands I took out his heart and stitched it six times. I did it for one patient, and I did it for another (pause). And this I learned...(aside). Are you listening?

DAILEY: To every word.

WILLIAMS: (Tries to encompass it) This heart. This human heart is not just a delicate thing, but...it's also tough and strong. It'll stand just so much pressure, and when you go in to handle it, it's the little things that you do that'll make the difference between life and death. Now you remember this when you're calling for your scalpel, sponges, sutures--clamps!

You cannot give the patient much anesthesia— WILLIAMS: He's too weak to stand it. He'll have his eyes open, watching and waiting. Cut your window over the fourth rib, tie off the vessels. When you lift the window, you'll see the heart. (Awe) It's like a slippery fish. It writhes, twists, and struggles like t's trying to break free. Take the stitches in between the heartbeats, and if the stitches hold back the flow, you've got a chance. But remember, keep in rhythm with the heartbeat. Keep the rhythm...(fade out). Never— break—that—rhythm.

DAILEY: (slightly off) Clamps. NURSE: Yes, Doctor Dailey. DAILEY: Suture (pause). NURSE: Here, doctor (pause). DAILEY: Sponge NURSE: Ready (pause). DAILEY: Clamps. NURSE: Here (pause). DAILEY: Clamp two. NURSE: Ready (pause). DAILEY: Clamp three NURSE: Ready. DAILEY: Clamp four. NURSE. Ready (pause). DAILEY: Clamp five. NURSE: Yes, doctor. DAILEY: Suture. NURSE: Here, doctor.

(SOUND: Up to a height for a spell. Keep forceful under the following)

DAILEY: (Coming close.) Now, it's ready. We'll lift up the window. Steady. Easy now. Easy—

PATIENT: (Filter) Doctor—what are you taking' off of me? Doctor­—

DAILEY: There, it's off.

NURSE: (Involuntary gasp) The heart! Look at it writhe and twist!

PATIENT: (Filter. Faint) Doctor—oh doctor—

DAILEY: (Tense but businesslike) Keep check on his respiration? Transfusion ready?

NURSE: It's on the rack, doctor.

PATIENT: (Filter) I—I feel so...so weak, doctor...so weak...

DAILEY: (Quick) Pressure?

NURSE: He's...he's gasping!

DAILEY: He's weakening; we've got to get on. (Going through the rhythm of it) Ready—to lift—the heart. Lift—it--out out of the body—not—too—much­ pressure—keep—in rhythm—with—the—heart—beats—

PATIENT: (Fearful. Filter) Doctor! Everything's goin' 'round 'n' 'round.

DAILEY: (Gasp of relief)—a little more...there—the heart's out! Now—to­ hold—it—in—my—left—hand. Blood leaking out—not—much time. Nurse! Needle. Curved needle!

NURSE: Right here.

DAILEY: Fine silk—

NURSE: It's threaded. Ready‑

DAILEY: (Hushed as though to self.) If—the—stitches—will—hold three­ stitches—should—stop—the leak (pause). One.

(MUSIC: Sharp sting. Simulation of a stitch)

DAILEY: Two.

(MUSIC: Higher tone stitch)

DAILEY: It still leaks...still leaks! One more, maybe...three!

(MUSIC: Highest stitch and let it quiver. Then the single note ping, ping, ping, ping of the leak)

(SOUND: (Meanwhile, sneak the heartbeat out under the above process)

NURSE: (Low, prayerfully) It still leaks! Good Lord—let it stop!

(MUSIC: Ping, ping, ping, ping. Then a pause. It has stopped. Dead air)

NURSE: (On cue, Awe) It's stopped. Thank heavens (starts) but his pressure—it's gone down. (Alarm but low) His heart's hardly beating—

PATIENT: (Woozy and fading. Filter) Doctor—I'm falling...falling...falling...doctor ...

DAILEY: Adrenaline! Quick, adrenaline!

NURSE: I've got it, doctor.

DAILEY: Locate a vein, in his arm, hurry!

NURSE: (Desperately trying) I'm trying to, doctor. But his veins have collapsed. I can't find—

DAILEY: Take the scalpel! Cut down! Make a cut down! Pick one up!

NURSE: I've got it, doctor.

DAILEY: Shoot it in!

(MUSIC: Sting of the adrenaline needle!)

(SOUND: Heart picks right back up and—)

DAILEY: (After he has listened to it) Good. Transfusion set?

NURSE: (Quick) Yes, doctor.

DAILEY: Then let the blood flow into him. There (pause). It's holding. Give him more—let it go freely!

NURSE: It's going in. The beat's picking up.

DAILEY: (With a kind of grim joy) Good assistant--clean the incision—sprinkle sulfa—take off the clamps—sew up the vessels—we've won. He'll make it.

(MUSIC: Heavier with the heartbeat but keep in background under following)

HEART: I—did make it. I, the human heart, a hollow bag the size of your fist. When I was wounded, these are some of the men who first healed me.

HEART: (Bring up the beat Pill force.)

(MUSIC: In with the beat and tag)

ANNOUNCER: You have just heard Destination Freedom's dramatization of the story of Dr. Ulysses Grant Dailey and Dr. Daniel Williams, among the first of the world's surgeons to devise a successful method for heart sutures.