Protest to Coroner

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 220, 20 September 1934, Page 4

Protest to Coroner

ANAESTHETISTS AS WITNESS Protest, against the practice of calling anaesthetists as witnesses at inquests on patients who died while undergoing operations was made recently by Dr. Ivan Magill, a London anaesthetist, at a coroner’s inquiry at Hammersmith. Dr. Magill said lie did not think it was to the benefit ot the public generally to read details of operation cases. One could imagine the efforts it would have.on a, patient about to undergo an operation. Nor did he consider an anaesthetist an essential witness. Why was not the surgeon called? The coroner: You have my personal sympathy. This matter has cropped up on several occasions. The point is the anaesthetist and not the surgeon generally comes to the court when a person dies during an operation. Dr.. Magill: It seems rather an injustic to one particular section of the medical community. All anaesthetists get out of it is unwanted publicity. Patients often refuse to have the anaesthetist booked for the operation because they had seen his name the previous night in connection wilh a fatal anaesthetic case.

"The public only hear of our fatalities,” Dr.' Magill added. “They do not hear about cases'when we bring a patient back from the brink of the grave by taking a risk.” • Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the pathologist, replying to the coroner, remarked •int he sympathised with the protest.