NAPIER HOSPITAL INQUIRY

Evening Star, Issue 22681, 22 June 1937, Page 6

NAPIER HOSPITAL INQUIRY

EVIDENCE CF PATHOLOGIST CAUSE OF DEATH ASSIGNED [Pek United Press Association.] NAPIER, Juno 21. The hospital inquiry was resumed this afternoon. Dr J. F. Browne (Auckland Hospital) gave expert evidence on the treatment of vulva vaginitis. He said he was always on the lookout for new methods which might prove successful. He hoped that in fever therapy a definite cure would be found, but he was not prepared to make a definite statement. Dr Whyte’s treatment could have been carried out by the nurse in charge. Dr P, P. Lynch pathologist, of Wellington, detailed the possible causes of infection, one of the most favoured being unsuspected infection in hospital. Constant vigilance was the only means of prevention, mere routine not being sufficient. If the disease spread from an unsuspected source the absence of nursing technique would probably be the cause. It would be difficult for a nurse in a busy ward to wash her hands after taking every_ temperature. His examination of the victim’s organs did not reveal the cause of death. Having heard the evidence, he wa& of the opinion that he was able to give the cause, of death. A temperature of 110 would be a great danger to a child, _ln his opinion hyperpyrexia was the immediate cause of death, and vulva vaginitis was a contributory factor. Children did not die from that disease. It was desirable that another doctor should have been present at the post mortem. The first collapse of the child was a danger signal. The commission sat to-night to investigate the administration, to S. J. Mont- § emery of a drug known as neohyroil. It was stated that Montgomery had already received £I,OOO damages for ill-effects suffered. Evidence describing the administration of the drug prior to an X-ray examination and of the ill-effects later suffered was given by Samuel James Montgomery. Medical experts and a member of the nursing staff also gave evidence disclosing that there had been a misunderstanding, and that neohydroil, which was then a fairly new drug, and not widely known, had been used instead of abrodil.