SURGEON FELL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23205, 26 November 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

SURGEON FELL

OPERATION TRAGEDY DELAY CAUSED MAN'S DEATH POISONED BY CHLOROFORM After evidence regarding the cause of death, Harry. Leslie Breese, aged 35, of Rcdeot, near Newtown, Montgomeryshire, was at Denbigh Assizes at Ruthin, found not guilty of the manslaughter of his brother-iji-law. Ho wa? also acquitted on a charge of unlawful wounding. The case followed the death of Francis Benjamin Morgan .lones, aged 21, and Mr. Ralph Sutton, K.C., prosecuting, alleged that Breese wounded Jones with a riflo shot. It was stated that during an operation for the removal _of the bullet the surgeon fell from his chair, and that Jones died under the anaesthetic.

Dr. Gerald Roche Lynch, senior official analyst to the British Home Oflico, said in evidence that had not the surgeon fallen the bullet would have been out and the patient on the way to recover}*.much earlier, and death would not have ensued. He was driven to the opinion that death was due to chloroform poisoning. Mrs. Magdalene Breese, describing the accident, said her brother refused to go away, and she gave liim a slight push. He "fell into a flower bed, picked himself up, and in doing so tripped. Ho blundered into her husband, and the gun went off. Mr. Justice Hilbcry said that the jury would have to ask themselves: "Did death ensue from an operation 'advised by medical men." That was the question upon which controversy raged. Nobody had suggested that Jones was kept an abnormally long time under the anaesthetic.