DEATHS OF INFANTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21101, 8 February 1932, Page 9

DEATHS OF INFANTS.

TWO DOCTORS SENTENCED. LUBECK INOCULATION CASES. (Received February 7, 11.3 p.m.) BERLIN. Feb. 6.

The trial lias concluded at Lubeck of the three doctors and the nurse charged with causing the deaths of 76 infants. Professor Deycke was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and Dr. Alstaedt to 15 months. Dr. Klotz and the nurse, Anna Schultze, were acquitted. Professor Deycke pleaded that a higher power, against which human beings were helpless, was responsible for the tragedy. The Court, in its judgment, said that wrong preparations were used in the inoculation of the children.

Professor Deycke, head of the Lubeck general hospital. Dr. Klotz, head of the children's hospital, Dr. Alstaedt, head of tho Health Department, and Nursing Sister Anna Schultze, were brought to trial on October 13 charged with negligence causing manslaughter or bodily injury to 253 infants, of whom 76 died after inoculation against tuberculosis. In July. 1930, the doctors and nurse were arrested and charged in connection with the deaths of children after being inoculated with a prophylactic against tuberculosis. The prosecution alleged that the doctors continued the inoculations long after the first child died, and moreover, destroyed the serum in order to hide the cause of the epidemic. The trial opened amid the sobs of bereaved mothers and the distraught fathers' cries of vengeance. Later in the trial Professor Deycke created a sensation by stating that when he first introduced the Calmetto treatment he was convinced that it. was not only harmless, but beneficial. However, ho frankly admitted, as the result of 13 months' experiments on infants, that he had made a scientific error, for which he assumed full responsibility.

Still another sensation was created by the professor on December 20, when he announced that he had inoculated himself with the Calmette serum in order to prove that the children's dpaths were due to a mistake. He declared : "I am perfectly certain of survival, but that will not- restore the lives of those poor babies. Should I die, [ shall at least be spared the unspeakable horrors of this case."