In the News Archive

ST. LOUIS — It took a record nine months in intensive care at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, but a Shawnee, Kan., man will be back home Saturday, thanks to an experimental heart-assist device that keeps his heart pumping.

Hospital officials said it''s the longest stay the cardiothoracic ICU has had, and that a lot of technology was used to keep Wilson Guthrie alive. The lifesaving device is in clinical trials and hasn''t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

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In any given year, St. Louis health care workers might encounter more than 70 foreign languages and up to 100 different cultures in the course of providing patient care. It''s estimated that 17 percent of St. Louis families speak a language other than English as their primary language.