DR BURROWS’S BOOK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18758, 11 January 1923, Page 5

DR BURROWS’S BOOK

AUCKLAND SURGEON INTERVIEWED. SOME INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, January 10. An Auckland surgeon had no hesitation at. all about commenting on the cabled summary of the book by Colonel Harold Burrows. the literary surgeon of Portsmouth (England) on “Mistakes and Accidents of

Surgery.” The local representative of the profession that lias long been subjected to the unkind gibe that its worst mistakes are interred also wields a facile pen when recording singular cases, and was thus able ito quote some interesting examples ,of strange oversights in the operating theatre. “It is less surprising than it is amusing, ' said the doctor, “to see Colonel Burrows retail in book form the tittle-tattle of the surgeon’s theatre as the sensational confessions of the profession. Since everybody, from ex-emperors and deposed kings and administrators down to society gossips, is doing the same thing nowadays, ho may perhaps bo forgiven. In any case, the confessions as to the other fellow's mistakes need not perturb anyone lequiring the services of a surgeon. The book manifestly is fnlonded to reflect aspects of the operating theatre which appeal to the lighter minds in the profession. If the book be accepted at its face value the public, us well as the professors, should enjoy most of its examples of mistakes in surgery. It is quite' true that, such mistakes dp happen, occasionally, even in most efficient and highly organised operating theatres, and every surgeon with wide experience could relate interesting oases in New Zealand, as well as in other countries. Surgeons are human, and have momentary lapses from carefulness, but as a rule serious errors in operations under modern conditions arc ns rare ns white blackbirds.

“Before the advent of the excellent equipment, which is now happily available"- for surgeons and anaesthetists in all progressive communities, some remarkable mistakes did occur in surgery. * It should be understood, however, that several of the most notorious anecdotes are merely pleasant fiction. There is the case, for example, in the old days when both a poor light, and a poor nmesthetic failed during an operation. In the dim light the patient struggled and fell to the floor. Prompt mea.-niues were taken to resume the operation before the drug became exhausted, and everything was carried out. successfully, but, when the lights were fully restored, it was found that an assistant had been the subject of the operation. Ho was probably none (bo worse for it. If is the sort, of mistake (lint would tend to make a medical student a careful operator Inter on. ‘Then there is the classical ebample of the discovery after operation, of a signet ring and gold pince-nez. Scissors and swabs have also been left in bodies upon which ’operations have been performed. Such carelessness is practically- impossible under modern conditions. Here is a first-hand reminiscence of an odd case which I personally saw in a famous London hospital as a visitor.* An operating surgeon bad just told us of how ho had discovered the value of (ho use of a heavy silver ladle in pressing hack into position certain internal organs which readily project in the course of abdominal operations. Forthwith he proceeded in our presence to perform the operation, with admirable skill and complete success. A few minutes later, however, an attendant announced (hat the ladle had disappeared. It was recovered promptly from the unconscious patient, who later enjoyed the fact that for once in his life he had possessed a big silver spoon. “It can truly bo said with emphasis that fotv serious mistakes are now made in modern operating theatres. Take the Auckland Hospital, for example. In (his institution careful precautions are taken against the possibility of such mistakes ns arc quoted by Dr Burrows, it would be quite aft unpardonable error if swabs, forceps, or any instrument were left in the body of a patient, after an operation.” “Should doctors tell,” lias been the cry in England of late, and the answers generally have bean in the negative. The same reply would doubtless be given in the question : Should retired surgeons write about the slips of the other fellow?