NEWS BY MAIL

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11842, 25 January 1933, Page 2

NEWS BY MAIL

magnet mlracle

REMARKABLE SURGICAL FEAT

One of the most remarkable operations on record lias been performed in. Nottingham General Hospital, England, on a six-year-old boy, who swallowed: a ball-bearing which became embedded in. Ins lung. Pneumania followed the mishap, and owto the lad's weakness an anaesthetic could not ho employed to permit of an operation through tracheotomy. Dr H. BclL Tawse throat, nose, and ear specialist, then decided that the only chance oti removing the- ballbearing uas by means of a powerful magnet. The infirmary was asked to, lend a Inigo apparatus which was used to draw of nicta'l from eyes. Tills was taken to the operating theatre and the hoy’s body- was placed'in proximity to the magnet, so that' when the current -was switched on he was in the middle of a,powerful magnetic field. A tube with a small electric bulb a the end 1 was then passed down the lad’s throat. After great difficulty the small metal hall was, located, and an iron rod, made specially for the: operation, was inserted down the tube In a. second, the hull clicked oii the liiagnestised bar and then the surgeon successfully withdrew the obstruction from the.boy’s body on.the end of the iron rod. The Jad is now recovering, ignorant of tli& fact that be has been the subject of a. remarkable surgical feat. So far as is known, no - other ctiso is on record of an electrical magnet having been employed- in the removal of a metal body from a human being.