UNUSUAL MEDICAL CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20221, 4 April 1929, Page 10

UNUSUAL MEDICAL CASE.

A VERY RARE DISEASE

DEATH OF A LONDON WOMAN

A disease of which little is known by the medical profession, and which caused tho death of an elderly woman, was mentioned at an inquest in London recently. The woman, Minnie Durrant, aged 59, collapsed alter an operation. Dr. William Patterson, of the Marylebone Hospital, said Mrs. Durrant was suffering from pemphigus vegetans. The Coroner (Dr. G. B. Scott): Is it a very rare disease ?—Yes, extremely rare. The woman developed moist gangrene, said Dr. Patterson, and it was decided to operate on the right arm. The operation was completed, and as she was about to bo taken back to the ward sho collapsed and died.

The Coroner: There is very little known of the disease?— Very little at all.* A number of medical men and students came to see her in hospital as a unique case. Is the cause of it known ?—No.

Dr. R. M. Bronte, pathologist, said lie had never seen a caso of that sort in the whole of his experience. Literature on the disease was very sparse. The immediate cause of death was heart failure from operative shock.

The Coroner: Did.you find any evidence as to the cause of this rare condition ?—None at all. The coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure. An eminent medical authority states that the disease begins in certain parts of the body, and, despito all efforts- to eradicate it by operation, continues and saps the strength of the individual. "It is not a tropical disease." he says, "and there are only a few known cases of it in the whole of medic'al .science."