SEVEN MINUTES DEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 172, 22 July 1936, Page 15

SEVEN MINUTES DEAD.

GIRL IN DENTAL CHAIR.

NO RECOLLECTIONS

SHEFFIELD, England,

British medical circles to-day heard the astounding story of Mary Davenport's seven-minute interlude of "death" in a dental chair, how she lost two dozen teeth and how she went back to work in a steel factory.

"The case poses a question for those who believe the soul leaves the body on the instant of death," remarked Dr. Alfred A. Masser, of Sheffield. He described the case for the British medical journal. "She remembers nothing about her strange experience," the doctor said. "There were no dreams under the chloroform. Her brain registered no reaction to what death was like, because the brain cells still wore under the effect of the anaesthetic during the seven minutes of lifelessness." Heat Stops Beating. Dr. Masser reported the 20-year-old girl's heart stopped beating shortly after chloroform had been administered preliminary to having her teeth extracted by a dentist. "The patient went suddenly white, breathing stopped, and the pupils dilated widely. The pulse and heart sounds could not be detected. "The head was immediately lowered, artificial respiration started, and strychnine was given hypodermically. "While this was being carried on, I massaged her through the diaphragm from beneath the costal margin. No response of any sort occurred, so I decided to try an intracardiac injection of 'icoral,' plunging a long needle into the left ventricle about the level of the fourth space, and slowly injected the 'icoral.' Pulse at Wrist Returns. "Immediately after this the massage through the diaphragm was continued, and in about one minute I could see a faint flicker of pulsation in the external jugular vein of the neck. "After another ten minutes of artificial respiration, the breathing recommenced, and the .ilse at the wrist gradually returned. "Her condition gradually improved so much that I decided to continue the anaesthetic with open other, and the dentist proceeded to remove about 24 teetli."