Surgeon's Fight For Boys' Life.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3080, 26 May 1914, Page 7

Surgeon's Fight For Boys' Life.

How the surgeon. l ' fought for the lite of a boy who died while under an anaesthetic in St. Bartholomew's Hospital was described at a London inquest on Alfred Freeman, aged thirtocn. Dr. Alfred B. Smyth, house surgeon, said that tho boy was admitted for an operation, but on being anaesthetised, he collapsed. The following remedies wero tried: Artificial respiration for '2\ hours. A tubo was J > - d '; ■a ri hi- tr:icn«-;t and oxygen forced into his i An electric bat- r\ ira< ai' Strychnine wa* iv< t-.d. Extract of sheo; ' bt ».:i g:ve ulate the action • . i. s ;;••:» shock. Brandy was administered. Salt saline was injected into his leg-. ami Tracheotomy was performed, but there was no response. The coroner said it was evident that everything possible was done. T>r. Spilsbury. tho pathologic" s.-.'d the boy was a very lymphatic subjei i and death was due to heart failure •';<.,- the condition known as status lymplwti cus, accelerated by the anaesthetic I' -was quite impossible to diagnose the cop•difcion during life. Status lymphatic* 5 was responsible for between 80 and -tO per cent, of anaesthetic deaths. The jury returned a verdict of Death bv Misadventure, r