Philosophy Professor Daniel Dennett was rushed to the hospital from the Medford campus n an ambulance in late October. On Nov. 3, he posted an entry in his online blog describing his condition.
Upon arriving at the hospital, Dennett underwent a CT scan which found he had "a dissection of the aorta," he wrote on the blog. "The lining of the main output vessel carrying blood from my heart had been torn up, creating a two-channel pipe where there should only be one."
Dennett had a coronary artery bypass graft seven years ago, which, he wrote, may have saved his life.
Surgeons operated on Dennett's heart for nine hours. During this time, "my heart was stopped entirely, and my body and brain were chilled down to about 45 degrees to prevent brain damage from lack of oxygen until they could get the heart-lung machine pumping," he wrote.
Now, Dennett has a new aorta and aortic arch, which is made out of Dacron fabric tubing. The surgeon sewed the tubing into shape during the procedure and attached it to his heart by a carbon fiber valve. According to the blog, this makes a small click every time that Dennett's heart beats.
Dennett was teaching two undergraduate courses this semester, "Philosophy of the Mind" and "Computational Models of Consciousness."
Senior Alex Kelston, who is double majoring in philosophy and quantitative economics, is in "Computational Models of Consciousness." While Dennett was in the hospital, Professor Ray Jackendoff, who heads up the cognitive studies section of the philosophy department with Dennett and has been co-teaching the class for the entire semester, took over instruction of the class, Kelston said.
"We were a little lost without [Dennett]," said Kelston. "When Dennett left, it left us without the leadership we needed."
According to Kelston, Dennett has been back in class for about two weeks now, but only part-time. The class meets on Thursdays and Fridays, but Dennett only attends the Thursday meeting.
"He seems lively and engaged," Kelston said. "He has said that [class] is helping his recovery process because it keeps his mind going.
"I'm extremely glad he's back and doing well," he said.
According to Kelston, Dennett is on campus for short periods of time.
"Right after class he goes right back to the hospital [or wherever he is getting care]," he said. "They pick him up outside the philosophy department."
Dennett was not available for comment by press time, and colleagues who are familiar with his condition did not respond to multiple requests to comment.
- Sarah Butrymowicz and James Bologna
