DEATH UNDER ANAESTHETIC.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 191, 13 August 1919, Page 5

DEATH UNDER ANAESTHETIC.

FOLLOWING TXPON OPERATION, j INQUEST AT THE HOSPITAL.

I An inque.=it as to ths cause of tho ( death of Mrs. Letitia Eleanor Roach, at , the hospital while under an anaesthetic, j was held at the morgue this morning, before Mr. , J. E. Wilson, S.M., Mrs. Roach, wife of Police Sergeant Roach,; I was 38 years of ago, and resided at 7, St. Martin's Lane, off Symonds Street. Dr. J. i-'. C. Moore, the anaesthetist: .at the operation, which Mr. Carrick I Robertson performed, stated that he examined the deceased and found her J heart strong, and concluded that she was a fit, subject for an anaesthetic. He used pure chloroform at the beginning,! and went on to a chloroform and ether I mixture as soon as the patient was slightly under. She took the anaesthetic quietly and well. Her breathing wad slightly irregular, but this was soon relieved by the removal by Mr. Robertson of a large lobe of the thyroid gland which was pressing on the trachea. The patient's colour was not good, so witness withdrew the anaesthetic and administered oxygen. Dr. Horsley continued the administration of the oxygen. The breathing of deceased became slightly irregular, and from that time on it became more infrequent and finallystopped some twenty minutes after the anaesthetic (save for an occasional drop) was withdrawn. Artificial respiration was being carried out before the patient stopped breathing, and the ordinary stimulants, ether, pituitrin, and strychinine were used. These did not avail, and death took place. The operation had been finished. An attempt was made to give an intrancous injection of saline solution, but though she was then still breathing, when the vein was cut down on she did not bleed..

Dr. A. Horsley, assistant anaesthetist at the case, gave corroborative evidence.

Dr. & A. Bull stated Chat on making a post-mortem examination, he-found the body well-nourished, with a surgical wound in the neck. The heart and bloodvessels were healthy. The cause of death was syncope resulting from adherent pleurae and persistent thymus gland. He did not consider that the anaesthetic had any direct bearing upon the cause of death. From personal experience he had known death to take place under similar conditions without either operation or anaesthetic. Such cases gave no physical signs known to modern medicine. He did not see, from the evidence of Dr. Moore, what else could have been done. It was the commonly accepted treatment. As far as he could judge from the post-mortem, the operation had become entirely necessary.

He had heard the evidence given by Dr. Moore, and considered that everything was done before and during the operation which should have been done. He did not think that had deceased had a temperature the operation would have been made, but if there were no temperature on a chill he did not think that the patient's power of resistance would have been lowered.

Mr. C. E. Roach, police sergeant, husband of the deceased, bore witness that his wife had suffered from goitre but was otherwise in good health. It was under an operation to remove this that she died. Deceased was admitted to the Auckland Hospital on the evening of the 7th inst. Witness saw her on the Bth and noticed that she had a cold. He was later told that it was not decided whether the operation would be on the 12th as arranged.

The Coroner's finding was in accordance with Dr. Bull's evidence. He said that death took place at the conclusion of an operation. He was satisfied that all proper precautions were taken prior to and during the operation, and that the anaesthetic had no direct bearing on . the cause of death.