Howard and Edna Stout were thankful for their new baby girl, born in 1949. They named her Linda. But soon, they became worried because baby Linda wasn't thriving. She was “very weak” due to being born with a hole in her heart—a ventricular septal defect between the lower chambers.
Linda's heart had trouble circulating oxygenated blood, which limited her growth and energy. Back then, doctors couldn't fix her heart and told her parents she wouldn't live long.
In 1954, when Linda turned five, she had survived despite frequent infections due to her weak immune system. She had “almost died from pneumonia a couple of times.” One day, their local doctor said, “I’ve done all I could do. She’s in God’s hands now.”
Linda's parents contacted Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic and traveled from Bismarck to Rochester, hoping for help. Mayo doctors were “trying to perfect” a heart-lung machine that could keep the heart dry during surgery. They said it would be ready in two years, and if Linda could survive that long, they might be able to cure her with open-heart surgery.
The machine was completed sooner than expected, and Mayo doctors said, “They would like to use it on Linda.”
When Linda and her parents met Dr. John W. Kirklin in his office, he told them that Linda’s open-heart surgery would “be the first one ever at Mayo.” Both parents were “afraid to take the chance,” and, as Mrs. Stout later told Linda, “I wanted to grab you and run away.”
However, because Mrs. Stout was a “praying woman,” they “decided not to run.” Instead, she asked family, friends, and their church to pray for a miracle of healing.
On this date in 1955, a newspaper reported that “It Was Miracle Week in… Heart Surgery,” because the new heart-and-lung-bypass machine worked, and Linda's operation was a success. Dr. Kirklin and his team of specialists corrected Linda’s heart defect.
In September 1955, Linda celebrated her sixth birthday and attended her first day of school. She was joyful, saying, “If I hadn’t gotten operated on, I wouldn’t have gotten to be six, and I wouldn’t have gotten to go to school.”
Linda gained more energy. She started roller-skating, swimming, and ice-skating. She grew up, graduated from Bismarck High School and Concordia University-St. Paul, and got married.
Now, 70 years after her ‘miracle’ surgery, Linda (Stout) Raison lives in Ohio.
Dakota Datebook written by Steve Hoffbeck, retired MSUM history professor
Sources:
- Victor Cohn, “It Was Miracle Week in State Heart Surgery,” Minneapolis Tribune, March 27, 1955, sect. 3, p. 1.
- Phone interview, Linda (Stout) Raison (in Ohio), with Steve Hoffbeck (in Barnesville MN), February 19, 2025, notes in possession of author.
- “Mayo Clinic Contributions to Medicine; 1955: Opening the Era of Heart Bypass Surgery,” https.//historymayoclinic.org. 2022/11, accessed October 2, 2024.
- Mary Jane Low, “Linda Turns Six, Goes to School Happy and Sound of Heart,” Bismarck Tribune, September 6, 1955, p. 5.
- “Ventricular Septal Defect,” mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/ventricular-septal-defect/symptoms-causes/syc-20353495, accessed February 18, 2025.
- G. Wayne Miller, “Pioneering Surgeons Offer Hope,” Star-Tribune, February 15, 1999, p. E1.
- “Howard Stout,” obituary, Bismarck Tribune, November 19, 2004, p. 13.
- “Edna Stout,” obituary, Bismarck Tribune, June 3, 1987, p. 9.
- Victor Cohn, “Mayo Doctors Bypass Heart, Lungs by Use of Mechanical Pump,” Minneapolis Tribune, March 23, 1955, p. 1.
