Squeezed Windpipe

When she was a week old, Sandy Kaplan had a wheeze, and sometimes her breathing made a sort of crowing noise. Doctors at Manhattan's Woman's Hospital knew there was something wrong with her, but did not know what. Her first day at home, Sandy turned white, then blue around the mouth, and almost suffocated. Her mother, a practicing attorney, learned to give Sandy only a couple of ounces of food at a time. That meant 20 feedings a day.

Muriel Kaplan dared not let the baby out of her sight. She all but gave up her law practice. She and her husband Bernard (once a pro football player, now in a television business) were rooted to their home in New Rochelle, N.Y. Three times one of them sat up all night holding Sandy upright--she seemed to breathe easier that way. Twice she had to be rushed to hospitals and given oxygen. The family physician, Dr. Edwin Raymond, often gave Sandy artificial respiration.

Despite her mysterious ailment, Sandy grew strong. But after every swallow of food, says her mother, there was an agonizing wait to see whether she would start to choke.

Dr. Raymond had recommended a thorough bronchoscopy as soon as Sandy was six months old. The examination, at Philadelphia's Chevalier Jackson Clinic, showed a rare malformation: the aorta (great artery) leading up from the heart normally passes in front of the esophagus (gullet) and trachea (windpipe). Sandy's aorta was divided and formed a ring around the two tubes. When food distended the gullet, the windpipe was squeezed.

The Kaplans were told that three successful aortic ring operations had been done at Massachusetts General Hospital. They drove to Boston, with an oxygen cylinder on the seat beside Sandy in case of emergency (it was not needed).

Last week, Dr. Richard Sweet opened 61-month-old Sandy's chest, tied off the front half of the aortic ring and cut it out. The arterial blood will pass through the rear half, which is expected to grow. On the danger list for 48 hours, Sandy was in an oxygen tent, breathing more soundly and soundlessly than ever before in her short life.

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