BOY’S DEATH

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 November 1923, Page 3

BOY’S DEATH

PARENT’S ‘INTENSE IGNORANCE.’

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TIMARU, November 9. An inquest was Held at Pleasant Point tu-uuy touching the death ol a boy aged o years 4.X months, tne son 01 Ell A. P. Prattley, farmer, Totara V alley. The boy had two toes crushed on September 2z, and had not been taken to a doctor ml September 30, when the terminals of His toes were dropping oil from gangrene. The father would not allow the boy to go to the hospital tnen or previously, when advised oy the Plunket nurse. On October x tetanus developed and 58,000 units o anti tetanus were injected, but were of no avail, the child dying the next day. The doctor gave a certificate, but omitted to report the child’s death to the" coroner. The Internal Affairs Department ordered the exhumation of the body, and a post mortem examination of the latter showed tetanus organisms were present on the stumps of the toes. The father of the chi id did. not consider the injury sufficiently serious to consult a doctor until a day after the accident, thinking treatment by the boy’s mother was all that was re The coroner found there was no criminal negligence intense ignorance on the part of the It was stated that a year ago ley had a horse that died from tetanus. It was dragged over the exac 1 where the accident happened, and over which the boy walked to the house with his toes bleeding. The boy also hopped about the yard after the accident with his foot bandaged.