286th Medial Dispensary. Dr. Temkin came to Long Beach in 1949, with the VA Hospital. In 1952, he was named Chief Medical Resident at the VA Hospital. In 1953, he was named the Director of the Cardio-Pulmonary Lab and in 1956, he became Chief of the Cardiology Section. From the VA Hospital, Dr. Temkin went on to Community Hospital.
Dr. Temkin went far beyond practicing medicine while at Community Hospital. There, he invented the manner in which medicine would be practiced. As one of his goals was to establish a state-of-the-art cardiac care department, Dr. Temkin spent three years planning and then building the hospital's first Coronary Care Unit, which was inaugurated in 1970. Determining that there wasn't a hospital bed that was suitable for coronary care, Dr. Temkin invented one and then oversaw its manufacture. The specially designed bed could be raised to 40 inches and lowered to 18 inches. These custom-made beds also allowed patients to be X-rayed without having to move them.
Dr. Temkin explains, "We took everything into consideration and designed the bed so there was only one wire coming out -- the umbilical cord. I got that idea from the space program."
All of the necessary electronic cardiac monitoring devices were connected to the patient instantly. The beds were also equipped for defibrillation and pacemakers, if necessary. The circuitry for these beds was developed in the hospital, and then inserted into the parts in Dr. Temkin's home, which, by then, had become a makeshift electronics shop.
But a Cardiac Care Unit requires more than just hospital beds. To do heart surgery, you have to be able to perform heart catheterization, which required expensive X-ray equipment that Dr. Temkin felt did not do a complete job. And so Dr. Temkin went home to his garage, where he developed what became known as the AngioCOR, a cardiac imaging device far ahead of its time. In order to gain Board approval for going forward in the development of his invention, Dr. Temkin worked with a carpenter from Community Hospital, and, spending a grand total of $35.00, built a full-size model of the device. Board approval was granted immediately, with no questions asked.
The AngioCOR was built at a cost of $307,500. It functioned for twenty-two years and required just one service call for a replacement of a $12.00 part.
LBJL March 2014 | www.lbjewishlife.com
The AngioCOR
cardiac imaging device
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