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CNN Live At Daybreak

Short History of Stethoscope

Aired January 08, 2003 - 05:52   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We know it's early, but go ahead and take a couple of nice, deep breaths.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You'll need them for this next story, a short history of a lowly instrument doctors just can't do without.

CNN's Jeanne Moos takes a look and listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You are looking at a collection of A, candle holders; B, wine glasses; or C, water pipes. Take a deep breath and hold it. It's none of the above.

(on camera): Dead as a door nail.

DR. DONALD BLAUFOX, MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER: It's not sticking out enough.

MOOS: Well, doing the best I can.

BLAUFOX: OK, I've got good news for you. You're not pregnant.

MOOS (voice-over): Dr. Donald Blaufox has lost his heart to the stethoscope. He has drawers full of them, collected over 30 years, and now he's written a book entitled "An Ear To The Chest," which is how doctors listened to our innards pre-stethoscope. Back in those days, getting so close to unwashed patients was no picnic.

BLAUFOX: People used that very, very long stethoscope to try to keep themselves as far away from the patient as possible.

MOOS: Nowadays they use stethoscopes in every from quintuplets to cats, from Alan Alda cracking jokes in "Mash"...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "MASH")

ALAN ALDA: You want to hear something really wild?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: ... to Woody Allen cracking safes. There's the stethoscope. The first ones were for one ear only. The monaural stethoscope was invented around 1816 by a doctor named Rene Laennce.

BLAUFOX: Now, it's very hard to hear with these things. MOOS: You had to press really, really hard. It was little more than a hollow tube. Next came the flexible stethoscope and finally the binaural.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Loud and clear.

MOOS: At first doctors weren't convinced two ears were better than one. This stethoscope gave them both options.

BLAUFOX: You would listen like an ordinary monaural stethoscope, take the rubber tube and stick that in your ear.

MOOS: These days the question is how to wear your stethoscope. Let's call the most popular way the "E.R." look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM ."E.R.")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Add a dig level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: Occasionally doctors...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hang it over one shoulder.

MOOS: But if you wear it this way, you run the risk of chafing your neck or worse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The stethoscope sometimes getting caught in the zip.

MOOS: Yes, that zip down below. Dr. Blaufox is the director of nuclear medicine at Montefiore Medical Center. But he likes the Norman Rockwell vision of the stethoscope.

BLAUFOX: It's the connection between the doctor and the patient.

MOOS: Or how about the connection between a mechanic and a car?

BLAUFOX: And you push it around in the engine.

MOOS: Define, say, an engine knock. Dr. Blaufox's collection includes everything from an ear trumpet...

(on camera): This was for people who were hard of hearing?

(voice-over): To a stethoscope similar to a miner's lamp, hands free.

(on camera): And I would listen to the abdomen?

BLAUFOX: Yes, that's listening to the baby.

MOOS (voice-over): Nowadays they can do it electronically. The medical bloopers calendar of supposedly true stories tells of a little girl playing with mom's stethoscope. The physician is touched that her daughter wants to follow in her footsteps when the child speaks into the instrument, "Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order?"

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 8, 2003 - 05:52   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We know it's early, but go ahead and take a couple of nice, deep breaths.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You'll need them for this next story, a short history of a lowly instrument doctors just can't do without.

CNN's Jeanne Moos takes a look and listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You are looking at a collection of A, candle holders; B, wine glasses; or C, water pipes. Take a deep breath and hold it. It's none of the above.

(on camera): Dead as a door nail.

DR. DONALD BLAUFOX, MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER: It's not sticking out enough.

MOOS: Well, doing the best I can.

BLAUFOX: OK, I've got good news for you. You're not pregnant.

MOOS (voice-over): Dr. Donald Blaufox has lost his heart to the stethoscope. He has drawers full of them, collected over 30 years, and now he's written a book entitled "An Ear To The Chest," which is how doctors listened to our innards pre-stethoscope. Back in those days, getting so close to unwashed patients was no picnic.

BLAUFOX: People used that very, very long stethoscope to try to keep themselves as far away from the patient as possible.

MOOS: Nowadays they use stethoscopes in every from quintuplets to cats, from Alan Alda cracking jokes in "Mash"...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "MASH")

ALAN ALDA: You want to hear something really wild?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: ... to Woody Allen cracking safes. There's the stethoscope. The first ones were for one ear only. The monaural stethoscope was invented around 1816 by a doctor named Rene Laennce.

BLAUFOX: Now, it's very hard to hear with these things. MOOS: You had to press really, really hard. It was little more than a hollow tube. Next came the flexible stethoscope and finally the binaural.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Loud and clear.

MOOS: At first doctors weren't convinced two ears were better than one. This stethoscope gave them both options.

BLAUFOX: You would listen like an ordinary monaural stethoscope, take the rubber tube and stick that in your ear.

MOOS: These days the question is how to wear your stethoscope. Let's call the most popular way the "E.R." look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM ."E.R.")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Add a dig level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: Occasionally doctors...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hang it over one shoulder.

MOOS: But if you wear it this way, you run the risk of chafing your neck or worse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The stethoscope sometimes getting caught in the zip.

MOOS: Yes, that zip down below. Dr. Blaufox is the director of nuclear medicine at Montefiore Medical Center. But he likes the Norman Rockwell vision of the stethoscope.

BLAUFOX: It's the connection between the doctor and the patient.

MOOS: Or how about the connection between a mechanic and a car?

BLAUFOX: And you push it around in the engine.

MOOS: Define, say, an engine knock. Dr. Blaufox's collection includes everything from an ear trumpet...

(on camera): This was for people who were hard of hearing?

(voice-over): To a stethoscope similar to a miner's lamp, hands free.

(on camera): And I would listen to the abdomen?

BLAUFOX: Yes, that's listening to the baby.

MOOS (voice-over): Nowadays they can do it electronically. The medical bloopers calendar of supposedly true stories tells of a little girl playing with mom's stethoscope. The physician is touched that her daughter wants to follow in her footsteps when the child speaks into the instrument, "Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order?"

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com