MOUNTING UP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 134, 9 June 1938, Page 8

MOUNTING UP.

DEPOSITION SHEETS.

CLAIM FOR DAMAGES.

FINDING OF SWAB ALLEGED

Over 100 foolscap sheets have been typed for the depositions used in the claim for £1813 for alleged negligence by the Auckland Hospital Board, which opened on its iiftli day in the Supreme Court this morning before Mr. Justice Lallan and a jury. The plaintiff Mas Mrs. Mary Margaret Barry (Messrs. Sullivan and Winter), alleging against the defendant board (Messrs. V. R. Meredith and McCarthy) that during an operation either 011 January 11 or April 11 at the hospital, a swab or other foreign body was left in her abdomen.

Three witnesses completed their evidence yesterday. They were Sister M. E. Gould, Xurse M. E. Gordon and Dr. L. A. Spedding. Dr. Trevor de Clive Lowe began his evidence yesterday, and i continued it this morning. I Sister Gould, now of Pukemiro, and formerly night theatre sister at the I Public Hospital in January, 1937, said she checked the swabs before and after the operation on the plaintiff. Dr. Spedding said that in April, 1937, he operated on Mrs. Barry. He saw her in January, and became familiar with Mrs. Barry's case. He agreed with Dr. Dreardon's course of treatment taken then. A Typed Paper. He described her condition when she was readmitted in April, and the subsequent treatment. He was not surprised to find that she had developed a residual abscess. He opened and drained that abscess. He said that Dr. Bridgman's operation, which seemed to produce a cure, in his opinion consisted in removing the shell constituting the abscess wall and providing ready drainage. That would account for the wound healing. '. In his cross-examination, Mr. Sullivan I asked witness to produce a typed paper, which counsel said witness had been J discussing with other medical men during the adjournment that morning. Witness said that the paper had been.;given him that morning by Dr. Lowe. Hfe knowledge of the conversation was hazy, and he would not deny that there had j been discussion as to where the cyst! was.

His Honor directed the paper to be put in as an exhibit. Further Medical Evidence. Dr. Trevor do Clive Lowe said he had been on the honorary staff of the Auckland Public Hospital "for over nine years. Mrs. Barry came under his care on May 20, 1937. Two sinuses were discharging. He treated the wounds surgically, but there was no improvement, and he again opened up the sinuses. Describing further stages in the patient's treatment, he said that an X-ray was taken with a view to eliminating the possibility of a foreign body being present. None was found, but that did not exclude the possibility of such a body being present if it was not , opaqne. J

Continuing his evidence to-day, Dr. de ' C'live Lowe said that he made a further : examination of the patient in August, j : and he learned something under an ] \ anaeethetic, and feeling her abdomen ( with his fingers he could feel a lump in I ( the left lower.' corner of the abdomen. | \ He pressed on the mass and noticed , pus was easily expressed from the left side of the sinus. Certain conditions ! indicated that she was not absorbing ' any poison into her system from the \ infected cavity. j 1

Mr. Sullivan asked whether witness heard Dr. Bridjrman say he took .out something round about the size of a lemon. •/■ I Witness: Yes. f He added that his feeling of the, abdomen led him to believe there was a mass in it. Mr. Sullivan: The report said <fhe examination revealed e mass the size of a tennis ball ?—This report was written by my house surgeon. Not Trying to Repudiate. The precis, he said, was the one he handed to Dr. Spedding yesterday morning. Mr. Sullivan: You are not trying to repudiate the precis? —No. Mr. Sullivan: Do you accept the report ? —With reservations. His Honor asked who made the precis. The witness said he did. He selected what to put in the precis with the hospital records before him. He did not mention to Dr. Aitken the size of the mass mentioned. The suggestion xhit

it was the size of a tennis ball was in Dr. Aitken's own words. He said to Mr. Sullivan that, though he never came to the conclusion that there was a foreign body in Mrs. Barry, the possibility crossed his mind, and he asked Dr. Main, the radiologist, to look for a foreign body. Mr. Sullivan: Have you any comment on the remarkable thing that when the operation by Dr. Bridgman had taken place the patient recovered ?—lt is j not unusual for these sinuses to heal spontaneously, and had a diseased ovary or portion thereof which was feeding the condition been removed, recovery o was likely. Radiologist's Statement. Dr. W. W. Main, a radiologist at the Public Hospital, who took an X-ray plate on Mrs. Barry, said the report he made on it was that there was no evidence of 'an opaque foreign body in the abdominal cavity. Dr. W. Gilnour, pathologist at the hospital, and Dr. E. P. Fowler, part-time pathologist at the hospital, said that the microbes mentioned in the pathological report were bacteriological in origin. Dr. Gilmour added that it would be absurd to suggest that their origin was otherwise. Dr. Kenneth McCormick said he did not feel it was his business to state whether or not a swab was found, but he was confident that the course of the case, arid the patient's subsequent relief, were explicable on other grounds than the finding of a swab. (Proceeding.