posted 02-17-2014 04:22 PM               

Does anyone know, did this drain solution rely on gravity, in which case I am puzzled how he could have regained flight status? Or was it perhaps capillary action that drained his ear?

posted 02-17-2014 10:17 PM            

It sounds like Endolymphatic Shunt Placement (the specific procedure Shepard underwent) simply provides a path for the additional fluid it drain out, instead of build up and cause all the problems associated with Ménière's disease.

posted 06-23-2018 10:54 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
What may be true for one patient isn't true for another.

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posted 07-10-2018 08:28 PM            

In 2003, I developed a eustachian problem and went to see an ear, nose and throat doctor not far from the Century City area of southern California. He had been a doctor in the U.S. Air Force, so over the course of several visits our conversation would always turn to flying.

On one occasion, probably after discussing the possibility of Meniere's, he asked me if I had heard of Alan Shepard and his ear problem. I told him of course I had. The doctor stated he had been interning with Dr. House during the period Shepard was House's patient. He told me that because medication was the preferred method of treatment for Meniere's (both in 1969 and 2003), and because of the high risk of loss of hearing from surgery, that Shepard never had the actual operation, only a "cosmetic" procedure to make it look as if the surgery had been done. Shepard's actual course of treatment involved the use of medication.

There is some plausibility to this, as the use of meds while flying might be medically disqualifying, but that a successful shunt procedure might not. And Shepard being Shepard, this isn't as far fetched as it sounds when I think about it.

posted 07-10-2018 10:05 PM               

If that version of events is true then it differs from the conventional narrative reported over the years. In a July 1998 Los Angeles Times article,The Doctor Behind Shepard's Apollo 14 Flight, it was reported that deception at a certain level was used to maintain Shepard's privacy:

Shepard, who demanded secrecy to avoid media attention, entered St. Vincent's Hospital in Los Angeles under the name Victor Poulos. It was a name made up by one of House's nurses.

A February 1971 New York Times article, A Tube Implant Corrected Shepard's Ear Disease, quotes NASA chief physician Dr. Charles A. Berry, details the surgery, refers to vertigo experienced by John Glenn as a result of injury, and briefly discusses Shepard being a Christian Scientist:

Dr. House performed the shunt operation, which Dr. Berry said was done at space agency expense. The surgery. Dr. House wrote, was "not designed to cure Meniere's disease" but to relieve its symptoms.

Dr. House cut through the mastoid bone behind Captain Shepard's left ear into a round part of the inner ear called the sacculus that contains endolymph.

Dr. House slit the sacculus, inserted one end of the tiny tube and then connected the other end to the cerebrospinal fluid behind the sacculus.

Natural Healing Process

Captain Shepard's natural healing. Dr. Berry said, has fixed the tube in place since the operation. Space agency doctors have tested the captain several times to see if the pressure encountered during space flight could dislodge the vital tube.

"Al had no problem," Dr. Berry said.

posted 07-11-2018 03:16 AM               

I went on out there. The fellow said, "Yeah, we do. What we do is we make a little opening there, put a tube in so that it enlarges the chamber that takes that fluid pressure, and in some cases it's worked." And I said, "Well, what if it doesn't work?" And he said, "Well, you won't be any worse off than you are, except you might lose your hearing. But other than that..." So I went out there under an assumed name.

What was the name?

It was Poulos, I think. Victor Poulos. The doctor knew and the nurse knew, but nobody else knew... So, Victor Poulos checks in and they run the operation ... it's not that traumatic, obviously, because after about a day I was out of there. Of course it was obvious when you look at the big ball of stuff over my ear when I get back home. But NASA started looking at me. And several months, several months, several months went by, and finally said, "Yes, all the tests show that you no longer are affected by this Ménière's disease." So there I was, having made the right decision.