A Remarkable Operation.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8197, 26 September 1906, Page 7

A Remarkable Operation.

One of the most rernarkj,b!o skin grafting operations known in the history of surgery has been accomplished io the caso of George Kilby, of Brooklyn, who has bad a whole side of his body remade with 414 pieces of skin grafted on him. Kilby was severely burned on the right s;da of the face und body on Maj' 6th by tho explosion of an alcohol lamp. Before the flames could be extinguished they had burned beneath his fckin, and scars which would have made that side of his body almost useless would hav9 resulted but for the work of science.

Not only did the immediate members of Kilby's family contribute cutiole for the restoration of his body—his littlo twelve-year-old daughter was the first to valunteor—but his physician, Dr. Herbert Allen, his nurse, and many of his friends, particularly from Hanson place Baptist Church, where he was active in church work, also made sacrifices. Thirty pieces of skin were cut from Mrs Kilby, and l6from her twelve-year-old daughter. Miss Snyder, the nurse, contributed 30 pieces, and Kilby's father, who is 60 years old, had 20 pieces cut from his right arm. More than HO of his friends also underwent operations on his behalf.-:

After being removed, the skin patohes were treated with antiseptics, and placed on Kilby's wounds. Tnis grafting process continued for nearly two months, and it was so successful that there will be only a alight scar on the man's face. Operations of this nature are common in hospital work, but seldom, if ever, has so large an area of a man's body been covered.