HOSPITAL PATIENT’S DEATH

Evening Star, Issue 21621, 17 January 1934, Page 3

HOSPITAL PATIENT’S DEATH

CHAISE AGAINST MATRON FUHTUEit EVIDENCE tiEARO [IT.u United L’r.sas Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, January 10. A charge oi manslaughter in respect ol tile death ot Airs Lillian Kuotla James in ivaikonra .Hospital, against Lditli Laura Fiaucis, matron ui the hospital at the time ot the tragedy, was heard in the Magistrate's Court this morning. Airs James died in the hospital on October 22 last as the result ol carbolic acid poisoning, following the administration of an enema, iiie accused s present address was given in tile information as Avonside,.Christchurch. Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., was on the bench.

The text of the charge against the accused was as follows:—“That on October 21, at Kaikonra, having charge of the patient, Lilian James, in Kaikonra Hospital, Edith Laura Francis did, in absence of care, and being under a legal duty to take reasonable precautions against danger, cause the death of James by administering to her an enema containing poison—namely, carbolic aud, thereby committing manslaughter.’’ Dr Robert Lauktree Withers, of Kaikoura, said that when she was admitted to hospital Mrs James was in a normal condition. Ho was called to the hospital later to find Mrs James collapsed and unconscious. The matron suggested as the cause of her condition the possibility of there having been carbolic acid in the basin used for the enema Steps were taken to meet sueii a case, bpt the patient died. Cross-examined. Dr Withers* said he had found the matron painstaking and conscientious. She could not have clone’ more than she did after the enema was given to meet an unusual case. William Ernest James, husband of Mrs James, said that on the morning following the night he took his wife to hospital the accused knocked at his back door. She told witness that she had bad news for him—that Mrs Janies had died. She also told witness that she had used a dirty dish which, she thought, had contained carbolic. She had said to him: “Unfortunately, it was my fault.”

Marion Elizabeth M’Combc, maternity nurse employed at the Kaikonra Hospital since 1929, said that about a week before the death of Mrs James she had placed in a cupboard a basin similar to that used by the accused in preparing the enema. It had contained both carbolic acid and carbolic solution. Witness' returned to the cupboard after Mrs James became ill and saw that the basin was missing. Cross-examined, witness said there was a cupboard to hold poisons at the hospital, and, apart from that, disinfecting poisons would be found only in the operating theatre. In this case she put the acid iu the cupboard and forgot that she bad put it there. The acid remained there for four or five davs. Tiie basin had no label.

Dr A. B. Pearson, pathologist at the Christchurch Hospital, who conducted a post-mortem, said that he attributed death to paralysis of the vital centres of the brain as a result of* poisoning with carbolic acid.

Constable W. M'Lennan read a statement made by the accused in which she said that she administered the enema to Mrs James.. She mixed the enema in a basin taken from a cupboard. The basin appeared to have a little dry soap in it. “ One would expect a far greater degree of care in the accused than in a nurse,” the Magistrate said. He did not think that the section of the Act quoted implied negligence, but a duty to take precautions and use reasonable care. Could the accused be said to have exercised reasonable care? It was the safest course never to use anything which had been used before, and for doctors and nurses to regard everything as potentially dangerous until the opposite was proved. He had grave doubts whether the charge as set out was established by the evidence, and in justice to the accused he would remand her to enable him to consider the point. The accused' was remanded until Thursday, hail iu the sum of £SO being allowed.