Posted by Carl Plaskett on July 13, 2002 at 13:02:42:
Since it is raining in FL, I am spending Saturday on the computer, and I have been alerted to a slight change in the facts (and the name of Mazer #1), per a message I just got from Dr. Cox, which I am attaching. Geeez, I'm even more impressed by Georges' courage to get the pre-cursor of the maze and then ultimately have the Maze III. I hope Georges will share the story of how he came to Dr. Cox initially, as it would inspire us all.
Dear Carl,
George Dheere is the first person to ever have an operation for atrial fibrillation, though it was called the Atrial Transsection
Procedure. That was done in 1986. About a year later (September 25, 1987), I did the first Maze procedure on a patient from Alton,
Illinois named Carl Bess. A few months later (February, 1988), I converted George Dheere's procedure to a Maze procedure. He
had 7 months of atrial flutter and we eventually successfully cured his problem with a catheter on September 7, 1988.
Another interesting point. The original Maze procedure was called the Maze-I. 32 people had it. The next version was the
Maze-II and only 15 people had it. The final version was the Maze-III which has been used exclusively since April, 1992 and is the
one that everyone now gets. The conversion of the Atrial Transsection Procedure to the Maze procedure in George Dheere resulted
in what eventually later turned out to be the Maze-III. Therefore, I have always reported George as being the first Maze-III patient.
J. Cox