PATIENT'S COLLAPSE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22008, 15 January 1935, Page 11

PATIENT'S COLLAPSE

WEAK STATE OF HEALTH

DEATH UNDER ANAESTHETIC NECESSITY FOR OPERATION The death of a widow, Mrs. Margaret Moss, aged 65, while under an anaesthetic at the Auckland Hospital on January 10, was investigated by Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., coroner, yesterday. Deceased, who lived at Te Atatu Road, Henderson, had been admitted to the hospital on December 17, suffering from diabetes, and it was later found necessary, as a result of the disease, to amputate a foot. Dr. A. 0. Knight, who administered the anaesthetic, said the operation had boon postponed because of the patient's low state. "The operation was a desperate chance to save the patient from her suffering," Dr. Knight added. "I was informed from the onset that her case was a bad one and every care was taken." He said that nitrous oxide and oxygen was used, as the safest anaesthetic in the circumstances. Deceased's pulse was weak from the beginning and as the anaesthetic proceeded," became shallower. As soon as the operation was over witness felt for deceased's pulse, but it had ceased. Questioned by the coroner, witness said that without the operation deceased's duration of life would have been only a few days at the most. "I find that deceased's death occurred while in a state of general necessarily and properly administered for the purpose of a surgical operation," said the coroner. "The cause of her death was diabetes and arterio sclerosis, accelerated by the anaesthetic."