Sciled: History

The history of a picture that changed The World

Zbigniew Religa after a 23 hour heart transplant, watching his patient’s vital signs. Image via National Geographic.

National Geographic chose this as the best picture of 1987, and for good reason. Here, we see Dr. Zbigniew Religa keeping watch on the vital signs of a patient after a 23 hour heart surgery he conducted. In the lower right corner, you can see one of his colleagues who helped him with the surgery fallen asleep. Dr. Religa was a pioneer of heart transplantation in Poland, and even though the surgery was considered borderline impossible at the time, he took the chance, and the operation was entirely successful. Today, even though Dr. Religa’s heart has stopped beating, the one of his patient is still running.

Zbigniew Religa conducted the first successful heart transplantation in the country, and in June 1995 he was the first surgeon to graft an artificial valve created from materials taken from human corpses. In parallel to being a surgeon he also had a successful political carreer, though outside Poland he is still chiefly known for his medical achievements. In 1993, he became a member of the Polish senate and was re-elected in 2001. He was a promising candidate in the 2005 Polish presidential elections; even as he backed out of the presidential race with only 6% of the votes, he earned significant respect from the Polish population.

Tadeusz Zitkevits, the patient who received the heart transplant, 25 years after the surgery. Image via National Geographic.

In 1987, the proposed heart transplant procedure received the green light, and Religa didn’t waste a single moment. The surgery was extremely demanding, lasting 23 hours, at the end of which Religa was photographed looking at his patient’s vital signs. The angst and fatigue really transcend the image, and the more you look at it, the more you see – everything adds a new dimension. The surgeon sleeping in the corner, the bloody mess, the myriad of cables… I just don’t get tired of looking at it. But when James Stansfield took this picture, he didn’t just tell a story of a surgery – in a way, he changed the world.

This video is in Polish, but it’s well worth it; it captures some moments of celebration after the surgery and bits of footage from the actual surgery.

Today, heart transplants save many lives which would otherwise be doomed. While it’s not technically a cure for heart or coronary disease, heart transplants typically have very good survival rates. It’s thanks to very talented and caring doctors like Zbigniew Religa that this is possible today; and it’s thanks to photographers like James Stansfield that we can truly admire their work.

5 Most Dangerous Places In The World

The Juarez Valley

The Juarez Valley on the Mexico-Texas border, a forty mile stretch of cotton fields and ghost towns, is so dangerous that even the police don't dare to enter.

Situated to the east of Juarez City – a town which held the title of the world's most violent for three consecutive years – the criminal cartels in 'Murder Valley' run drugs, weapons and illegal immigrants across the border, murdering in cold blood anyone who interferes with their business.

Today the Juarez Valley, which runs along the Rio Grande and is just a stone's throw from the eighteen-foot fence on the US border, sees more death and violence than anywhere else in North America. It has even been suggested that it could be the deadliest place on Earth

YUNGAS ROAD, BOLIVIA

The former world’s most dangerous highway (alternatively known as Death Road, Grove's Road, Coroico Road, Camino de las Yungas, El Camino de la Muerte, Road of Death, Unduavi-Yolosa Highway) climbs up a famous Bolivian mountain pass, La Cumbre, at an elevation of 4,650 metres (15,260 ft) above the sea level. This road was legendary for its extreme danger. Based on the ratio of death per mile, on an average, 26 vehicles plummet over the edge each year, claiming more than 100 lives. The estimation is that 200 to 300 travellers were killed yearly along the road. With these numbers, in 1995, the Inter American Development Bank christened this highway "The Most Dangerous Road in the World”

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

As many as 16 in 2016 alone. The country has been plagued by incidents since mid-2015, with last year particularly bloody. There has only been one so far in 2017 - a car bomb and gun assault on a courthouse in the Turkish city of Izmir, which has been blamed on Kurdish militants.

The majority of the of the attacks have been in the cities, Istanbul and the capital Ankara, away from the coastal areas popular with tourists.

LAKE KIVU

Lake Nyos in Cameroon released a similar cloud of gas in 1986. Because carbon dioxide is heavier than air, 1.7 million tons of the gas bubbled out of the water and rolled onto the shore. Within a few minutes, some 1,746 people and more than 2,000 suffocated.

SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS

Honduras had the highest homicide rate in the world. The city of San Pedro Sula had the highest homicide rate in the country. And the Rivera Hernández neighborhood, where 194 people were killed or hacked to death in 2013, had the highest homicide rate in the city. Tens of thousands of young Hondurans traveled to the United States to plead for asylum from the drug gangs’ violence.

10 Facts About Nepal Earthquake, 2015

The morning of 25 April 2015 was same all over the world as any other day. But at 11.56 NST an earthquake of 7.8 magnitudes struck the land of Nepal and created the worst natural disaster since the earthquake of 1934. Let’s know some of the facts about Nepal Earthquake, 2015 that shook the humanity:

1. One of the Biggest Earthquakes!

The earthquake on the morning of 25th April 2015 was the biggest earthquake that Nepal had felt in over 80 years. The last tragedy that Nepal experienced before this was the 1934 Nepal – Bihar earthquake.

2. The Epicenter
The Epicenter of the Nepal earthquake was approximately 34 kilometers east – southeast of Lamjung, Nepal. The earthquake lasted about fifty seconds causing flattening of the entire village at epicenter and areas nearby it.

3. The Intensity
The Nepal Earthquake registered a magnitude of 7.8 on Richter Scale. This earthquake released energy equivalent to about 79 lakh tons of TNT which are 504.4 times the energy which was created by the atomic blast on Hiroshima in 1945.

4. The Aftershock
An hour after the earthquake, its aftershock was felt. The aftershock was of 6.6 magnitudes and caused as much damage as the main earthquake itself.

5. A jolt that moved the earth!

The earthquake caused a shift of earth’s surface which is estimated to have been 3 meters in 7,200 km. Some parts of the city of Kathmandu, which is the capital of Nepal was lifted by about 3 feet, vertically. This caused severe damage in the capital city.

6. Death Toll in Nepal

The earthquake resulted in the death of about 5,057 people in Nepal alone. More than 8,000 people of Nepal were injured.

7. Affected the highest peak!

Even the mighty Mount Everest felt the tremors of the earthquake and is now 2.5 cm shorter than its height before the earthquake.

8. Loss of lives on Mount Everest

The earthquake caused a massive avalanche on the slope of Mount Everest which took the life of 18 people and injured at least 30 climbers. Just after the avalanche, about 200 people were left stranded on the mountain as help couldn’t reach them due to the risky condition of the mountain. Also, there were some climbers who were reported missing after the avalanche.

9. Langtang Valley Landslide

kilometer wide landslide occurred at Langtang Valley which is located in Langtang National Park. Only 12 local people and two foreigners are believed to have survived this mass destruction.

10. Infrastructure wasn’t up-to-date!

After the earthquake, it was discovered that the infrastructure of Nepal was critically feeble and wasn’t prepared to stand a calamity. The houses built were not properly engineered and were not according to disaster management standard. The lack of properly paved roads caused a delay in assistance to reach remote regions. Adding to the woes was the lack of terminals at Kathmandu airport due to which planes filled with help were left to idle on the tarmac.

Facts About Nepal

With its ancient culture and the Himalayas as a backdrop, landlocked Nepal was closed to the outside world until the 1950s.

Since then the country has seen the creation of a multi-party parliamentary system, a decade-long Maoist insurgency and the abolition of its monarchy.

Flanked by China and India, it is home to eight of the world's highest mountains including Mount Everest, known locally as Sagarmatha.

As one of the world's poorest countries, Nepal's economy relies heavily on aid and tourism.

A devastating earthquake in April 2015 killed thousands of people, flattened villages and reduced numerous heritage sites to ruin.

Since then political infighting has delayed much of the reconstruction despite billions of dollars having been pledged.

The territory of Nepal has a recorded history since the Neolithic age. The name "Nepal" is first recorded in texts from the Vedic Age, the era which founded Hinduism, the predominant religion of the country. In the middle of the first millennium BCE, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in southern Nepal. Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet. The Kathmandu Valley in central Nepal became known as Nepal proper because of its complex urban civilisation. It was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala. The highest elevation in Nepal is Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain, rising 8,848 m (29,029 ft) above sea level. The Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valley's traders. The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional artand architecture. By the 18th century, the Gorkha Kingdom achieved the unification of Nepal. The Shah dynastyestablished the Kingdom of Nepal and later formed an alliance with the British Empire, under its Rana dynasty of premiers. The country was never colonised but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and Colonial India. In the 20th century, Nepal ended its isolation and forged strong ties with regional powers. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951, but was twice suspended by Nepalese monarchs in 1960 and 2005. The Nepalese Civil War resulted in the proclamation of a republic in 2008, ending the reign of the world's last Hindu monarchy.

Modern Nepal is a federal secular parliamentary republic. It has seven states. Nepal is a developing nation, ranking 144thon the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2016. The country struggles with the transition from a monarchy to a republic. It also suffers from high levels of hunger and poverty. Despite these challenges, Nepal is making steady progress, with the government declaring its commitment to elevate the nation from least developed country status by 2022. Nepal also has a vast potential to generate hydropower for export.

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