Dear Friends,
This letter is to thank you for your support, warm wishes, and as Mark Twain said, “rumors of my death are premature”.
Let me start with some humor:
A person was at home. A paramedic came by and said there was a flood coming and you have to get out.
The person responded, “No, I trust in the Lord and He will save me.”
Four hours later, water was up to his knees, a boat came by; the boatsman said “get in” the flood is going to get worse.
Again the person responded, “No, I trust in the Lord and He will save me.”
Nine hours later, he was on the roof; a helicopter came by and said we are here to rescue you
Again the person responded, “No, I trust in the Lord and He will save me.”
He goes to heaven and meets the Lord. He says, “Lord, I trusted you. Why didn’t you save me?”
The Lord says, “What do you mean? I sent three people!”
On October 23, 2010 I was declared dead, no pulse, not breathing. But, fortunatelyI had three guys.
I am writing to this letter to thank those “guys” and all the people whose hard work makes it possible for me to write this letter.
Me on my horse, Barron, two
hours before I died
On October 23, 2010 I was participating in a Myopia Hunt Horseback ride. Nothing that morning suggested what would happen soon. An hour into the ride and galloping I became dizzy, slid off the horse and died.
Jessica Menvel, two days after my surgery,
she performed CPR and saved my life!
A doctor participating in the hunt declared me dead.
However there was a paramedic, person one, in the hunt who would not give up and performed CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for five minutes. Thank you, Jessica. Afterward, when I met Jessica, I told my wife next time I am going to fake it.
With my son John in England
After tests in Beverly Hospital and Lahey Clinic, where they determined I had massive toxic plaque blocking the main artery caused from 8 years of stress, person two showed up. My son John insisted I go to Mass General Hospital and made some calls to the Brady’s to contact chief surgeon Dr. Rosenfield.
The doctors determined that my main artery was completely blocked, too hard for other procedures and I had to have an open-heart surgery, which would decommission me for several months, and affect my mental abilities. At this critical point in my life it would have been devastating to me.
With my long-time friend Sundar
This is when person three arrived. My closest friend and long-time partner, who is also the smartest person I know, Sundar, introduced me to a new process - robotic heart surgery. This procedure inserts a small robot that repairs the heart, and is less invasive and doesn’t require you to be put on a heart-lung machine. A technology that sprain from my early research as a professor at MIT and sponsored by DARPA.
Most unexpectedly, I did not anticipate that my own MIT research would one day help save my life.
Dr. Agnihotri, MD
Dr. Agnihotri - website
Teaming up with Dr. Rosenfield we found the only doctor in New England who performs such robotics surgeries – Dr. Arvind Agnihotri, and, thankfully, he performs surgeries at MGH. The surgery performed on October 27 was a success!
Just after surgery at the Thanksgiving Day hunt
Thank you, Dr. Agnihotri. Your skill and your long research refining the robot and your expertise did so much more than improving my heart. Moreover, thank you for going out of your way and scheduling and performing surgery the next day. You have allowed me to remain in top shape, physically and most importantly, mentally during this critical time in my life. I was able to walk out of the hospital after only a day and a half and was able to get right back to what I love doing the most – starting companies, creating charities and making on impact on our country.
Linda at Oxford
Most of all, I want to thank Linda, my wife. She has been with me every minute through this adventure. On the trip home from the hospital, I was able to make a surprise visit to a charitable event, which Linda was leading, and was able to pin a blue ribbon on her as a small symbol of my thanks for her. Thank you, honey.
Dr. Rosenfield, MD
Dr. Rosenfield, MD - website
Within two days of the surgery I was back, writing patents, creating a very valuable company, recreating the wealth and charities that were destroyed, and I needed all of my energy and mind for it. I couldn’t take a hit, and I haven’t. The speed of my recovery even surprised my cardiac doctor, Dr. Rosenfield. I am now a case at MGH. Thank you, Dr. Rosenfield for managing this entire process.
Currently people say I look good, energetic – I AM ALIVE!
Thank you everyone. I now want to take this new lease on life and apply myself to creating a legacy for all the people who have helped me so much. Stay tuned!
How I and my colleagues Helped Save My Own Life...
I thought you might be interested in some of the technology which helped save my life. In this adventure I have been blessed with people who have performed miracles for me, just at the right time.
Most unexpectedly, I did not anticipate that my own MIT research would one day help save my life.
The surgery was performed using the daVinci machine built by Intuitive Surgical. The basic work that led to the creation of this miracle machine and supporting technologies came out of MIT. In 1963 with funding from DARPA’s Project MAC was founded at MIT under the leadership of Professor Robert Fano. In 1969 I became a professor at MIT in Electrical Engineering and a member of Project MAC, and participated in three main research directions:
- Multics, which lead to the creation of Unix, under the direction of Professor Corbato (Book: Operating Systems – Donovan and Madnick)
- DARPA Net, which lead to the creation of the internet, under the direction of Professor Licklider (reference: Donovan paper on VM Secure)
- Artificial Intelligence, which lead to these robotics, under the direction of Professor Minski and Professor Winston (reference: IBM Systems Journal – Professor Donovan on Virtual Machines).
Multics was the most advanced operating system at the time, so DARPA.Net evolved (eventually into the internet) to allow other universities access to the MIT operating environment.
The military and DARPA were very interested in robotics for treating injured warriors in the field. Combing three research advances – DARPA.Net, robotics and operating systems would allow surgeons to perform operations on a wounded soldier while being many miles away in safety.
A brilliant MIT PhD student working in our research group in project MAC, , Akhil Madhani, developed the Black Falcon machine using the basic research of our group . Black Falcon was later incorporated into the daVinci machine.
Moreover, DARPA also sponsored the PhD research of Yulan Wang at the University of California, Santa Barbara (a member university of DARPA.Net), who then formed Computer Motion, which latter merged with Intuitive Surgical, the producer of the daVinci machine.
I want to thank Akhil Madhani, Yulan Wang, and my all colleagues at MIT, whose work alongside mine created the machine, the network, and the operating systems ; that does not just saves lives, but grants a higher quality of life to people. Special thanks to my MIT colleagues: Professor Corbato, Professor Licklider, Professor Pat Winston, Professor Jerry Saltzer and Professor Stuart Madnick and graduate students: John DeTreville, Hoo-Min Toong, Michael Hammer and the many many more , who contributed to Project MAC. Thank you! professordonovan.com