The Nation - News from Jan. 8, 1986

Prosecutors in the case of Navy surgeon Donal Billig, charged in the deaths of five patients through negligence in heart bypass operations, won the right to present preserved human hearts as evidence in the doctor’s court-martial. The court disposed of more than two dozen pretrial motions, and the way was cleared to begin the questioning of the court-martial panel in Washington. Cmdr. Billig pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Billig, 54, was chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland in 1983-84. The Navy charges he committed involuntary manslaughter and was derelict in his duties during that period.