BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
There's a bit more than medicine going on out at Jewish Hospital. There's also a TV shoot.
To wit: A crew from the British Broadcasting Corp. rolled in to the hospital in Kenwood Monday to film a segment on one Dora Downs.
Remember? On Aug. 18, 1997, the Enquirer's Tim Bonfield wrote about a miraculous recovery she made after being pronounced dead.
Downs was there for tests when she went into cardiac arrest.
Enter surgeon Dr. Creighton Wright, who hooked her to a heart-lung machine and did a bypass. When he tried to disconnect the machine, he couldn't get a heartbeat.
Dr. Wright and crew did everything -- drugs, shocks; weaning quickly, weaning slowly; warming the heart; manual heart massage -- but nothing worked.
Dr. Wright explained to the family -- someone had already scrawled "pronounced dead" on her chart -- and told them if they had any prayers, now was the time.
He tried once more and, incredibly, got a heartbeat. Since then, Downs has made a full recovery.
Dr. Wright credited her survival to "God and prayer" in stories reported on the Today show and in Women's World. Now, it's the BBC. The crew is here for 10 days, filming for a series name of BBC Mysteries, a 30-minute show on things not easily explained. It will be a 10-minute segment.
According to Erica Taylor at Jewish, they'll re-enact the scene using actors, then consult experts looking for an explanation.
No telling whether the show might air here.
MURDER MOST FOUL: Looks like half of a well-known local couple is into dirty deeds: Murder, attempted murder, assault, bank jobs, scams and abductions.
That would be Bruce Martin and his Martin's Mini Mysteries (Creative Consortium Books; $19.95), a collection of very short stories. His wife is Phyllis Martin, author of 1997's Return to Chipping Sodbury.
Martin has this nifty concept: Stories -- mostly 6-8 pages, some up to 20 -- for people who read in spurts. Nothing complicated, these are plot driven, single-clue jobs.
Martin is a former chemical engineer at Procter & Gamble, former university prof and contributor to Ellery Queen Magazine.
He's also a hiker, which must be why one story, "Jerome's Creek," is about two hikers, one a criminal, who meet, share a moment then . . . well, we won't spoil it.
It's in bookstores now.
THAT'S WHO?: Wherein Mount Adams is abuzz about the Jensen appearance that wasn't but everyone thought was.
Here's the story: Word was on the street that tennis brothers Luke and Murphy Jensen would sit in with O-Six, the local band fronted by singer Jodi Legg, Saturday at Longworth's. O-Six was due to go on at 10 p.m.
But at 6 p.m., two guys armed with a guitar and a bass, the instruments the Jensens play, took the stage unannounced and unnamed. They played classic rock, just like the Jensens, for four hours for a crowd that thought they were the Jensens. Even Longworth staffers thought so.
But they weren't. While Longworth's was listening to whatever, one Jensen was in Indy and the other was at DeSha's.
What happened, as best we can figure, is the band scheduled for early Saturday had to cancel so their booking agent sent another. Two guys who look like tennis rockers on guitar and a bass? It's an easy mistake, and one a lot of people made. Psst! had several calls reporting the non-sighting.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
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