Meet cardiologist Bill Devlin, the ape crusader

Cardiologist BillDevlinhad examined people before, but he was once nervous about a new patient.

"His name was Sunshine, and he was 535 pounds,"DevlintoldThe St. John's Morning Show this week.

Luckily for Devlin, Sunshine one of the biggest gorillas on record was asleep, and the doctor was able to complete the exam.

"Sunshine, fortunately, had a good heart, and we were able to evaluate that as part of his general physical exam," he said.

It was very unnerving, because you get to see the power and the physical strength that they have.- Bill Devlin

"Since then, I've met him a number of times in the awake state. I don't think he remembers anything about it."

Devlin born, raised and educated in St. John's practises at the William Beaumont Hospital School of Medicine near Detroit, where a partner became involvedwith the Great Ape Heart Project after it was discovered that great apes in captivity were dying of cardiac disease.

Devlindecided he could help too.

"The veterinarian world doesn't have much experience with primate hearts, so they reached out to the human world. We have lots of experience," said Devlin, in town for his30th-year class reunion.

An average person looking at a human heart and a gorilla heart wouldn't be able to tell the difference, he said.

The first time he was called to a zoo, to examine two gorillas including Sunshine was nerve-racking. They wereanesthetizedsoechocardiograms could be done to assess their hearts.

"There was a lot of unknowns,"Devlinsaid, adding that they rely on the veterinarians andzookeepersfor help in determining how the apes are feeling.

"They know by the way the animal moves or the way they eat their food whether they're having a good day or a bad day," he said. "I ask my patients how they feel, and you can't do that with these, but the veterinarian world is used to that."

A house call to a gorilla enclosure at Disneyworldtaught Devlin that lesson.

"The gorillas were really disturbed when I came into the enclosure, and one of the keepers said it's because I was so tall, and I was taller than they were, and they didn't like the fact that they had to look up," he said. "So I kind ofstooped. You learn how to behave in their world."

When the gorilla wakes up

And not all patients slept as soundly as Sunshine did. Devlin recounted doing exams at a Chicago zoo when one of the gorillas woke up.

"There was a mad scramble to get her back in her cage before she really came to," he said. "That was very unnerving, because you get to see the power and the physical strength that they have."

Devlinvolunteers for the project because, he said, it's a way to repay animals for all the ways they've served humanity.

"We test on animals and we do things. This is a scenario where we're actually using human experience to help them," he said. "And that's what I really find that's neat. We treat the animals that have heart failure just the same way that we would treat a human patient It's just an amazing situation to be able to use the skills I've developed as a human cardiologist to help animals."

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