MAREO RE-TRIAL.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 12 June 1936, Page 5

MAREO RE-TRIAL.

KEEN INTEREST IN EVIDENCE FOR DEFENCE. DOCTOR REPLIES TO STATEMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. Keen interest is evidenced in the defence i'(>v Mareo and the Court was this morning. Dr. T. L. Paget, Wellington, Inspector of private Hospitals under the Health Department, gave evidence that lie had not practised for the past twelve years, but previously had practised at Stratford and. Palmerston North f.'o: thirty years. A statement that had been read during the Marco case had caused him to offer yesterday to give evidence. The statement was that it ia patient lapsed into unconsciouness 'through an overdose of veronal and recovered, that patient would not relapse and die. That statement had reminded him of a case that came undei his notice twenty to twenty-live years ago. The woman lived near Hawera and had been a patient of his in Stratford. When he was called in she had been in a fairly deep coma. The histciy of the case given him was that she had been given veronal two nights previously. Witness thought ten to firten grains had been given. Medical advice wa.s that the first dose was not effective and a second similar dose was administered. Next evening the cumulative effect of those two doses was to cause coma. When witness arrived the nvoman was in a comatose condition, but while he was there she roused, recognised him and talked. She seemed to be recovering. Witness could not remember what treatment had been given the woman, -but thought they had prescribed strychnine for the heart. They thought she was recovering, but she relapsed into unconsciousness and although under constant medical attention coma increased and she died from veronal poisoning. "I was satisfied she was in a state of ,coma because of veronal," continued Dr. Paget. "She may have had the limit 'of forty grains in twenty-grain doses, but I cannot remember exactly. I think it impossible for her to have had a third dose. Her husband was very fond of her and there was no question of criminal intent. Veronal was given rfon that occasion hypodermically." Replying to Mr. Meredith witness said he agreed that drugs of the barbituric acid group acted fairly cer•tainly, but he didn't agree with the statement that they acted with rapidity. He would recommend a dose to be taken one hour or two hours before a patient desired sleep. The patient to whom he referred was between s'o and 55 years of age. Her general health' had been good, but he hadn't •seen her for some time before the fatal illness, and she may have deteriorated during the interval. No postmortem examination was carried out and he was unable to tell the Court of the woman's organic condition. The patient was in a condition of coma —with a brief intermission in which she was awake—for about tirty-six hours. Her appearance was dusky and her breathing laboured. Witness roused her, he thought, bj r speaking to her and probably moving her. He thought possibly that the other doctor might have given her strychnine before witness arrived, and this might have assisted her to awake.

Re-amiiicd: Dr. Paget said lie found .no organic disease of the heart or Jungs. ! To Justice Callan: Witness said that when he roused the woman she didn't become at all lively, was .drowsy, and spoke in a drowsy way.

[ Irene Alice Eiano. a widow, of Melbourne, questioned by Mr. Henry, said ■she met Thelma Trott in 1931 with a variety company. Her daughter and 'grand-daughter joined the company. She saw Miss Trott again in Melbourne in 1033, 'when her family joined the Ernest Rolls Company. She remembered Thelma telling her she couldn't sleep without sleeping powders. One night she had a botle of veronal which she said was the best tiling- on the market for sleeplessness. She had rjonce said that she would kill herself [•because life wasn't worth living.