DEATH UNDER CHLOROFORM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 12

DEATH UNDER CHLOROFORM.

“ST-ATUS LYMPHATICUS ’’ AN TJNTJSUAI CASE The inquest on the young school teacher chloroform it Timaru on the 18th, when chloroform at Timaru on Monday when about to undergo an operation for the removal of an obstacle in hie nostrils, was held or th© 19th before Mr V. G- Day. coroner. The evidence of Dr W. C. Burns, who administered the anesthetic, showed that everything was done regularly. He commenced the anaesthetic about 8.55 ia.m., and gave chloroform by what . was known as the open method.—.dropping it on a towel. He gave it slowly, and put th© patient under gradually without any trouble. When he had got him to the stage of light anaesthesia witness signified to Dr Unwin that he might give the injection of adrenalin (given to control the bleeding). At the first puncture the patient winced a little, showing that the anaesthesia was light, and when Dr Unwin was injecting it into the other nostril witness noticed the face become pale. At this time the anaesthetic was stopped. The mask was over the patient’s mouth when the first puncture was being made, but was taken taway altogether from the face for the second puncture, in order to allow it to be made comfortably. Witness knew ■it was to be a nose operation, and for that reason he chose chloroform. On noticing the change in the patient’s face witness lowered the head and warned Dr Unwin that the patient was in trouble, and thov at once commenced artificial respiration. Just as they were commencing this, Dr Pitts, of Waimate, came in. They carried 1 on artificial respiration from about 9 o’clock until a quarter to 12, but never succeeded in restoring the heart’s action. They had the patient breathing just after starting artificial respiration, but there was no pulse to be felt. They injected strychnine and ether to restore animation, but all to no purpose. Before discontinuing attempts to restore animation they made sure that he Wias dead by opening an artery in his wrist. Death had taken place when the face became pale, just after the second puncture. To the Coroner: Before they administered chloroform all precautions had been taken to ascertain that he wais in fit condition for it. Witness examined him carefully, Dr Unwin saw him that morning, and Dr Pitts had seen him previously. The operation was necessairy, and the patient was anxious to have it done. Witness gave about two teaspoonfuls of chloroform, which wiais a reasonable quantity to give. Chloroform was th© best anaesthetic to use for an operation on the nose. This evidence having been corroborated by Dr Unwin, Dr Gibson said that he had made a post-mortem examination of the body in the presence of Drs Burns and Unwin. He found the deceased to have been well nourished and apparently a healthy young man. The internal orerans, heart and lunge, were quite sound. There was present a thymus gland. This gldnd was not present in a normal healthy adult. It was present at birth, but shrank at the age of 12 months. There was also enlargement of the spleen, of the thyroid, and of the glands in the mesentery. These conditions were ©resent in the disease known as status Ivmphaticus, which gave rise to sudden death on anv, occasion when some gross interference with the ordinary balance of life was made. It had been found in a large proportion of the oases of sudden death in apparently heailthv individuals. Some authorities went so far as to say that to administer an anaesthetic to a man with status Ivmphaticus meant almost certain death. The disease had never been recognised during lifetime, and there were no means of diagnosing it. He attributed death to status lymnhaticus, hastened by the administration of chloroform. Any sudden shock might have caused the death of the deceased at anv time. The thymus gland weighed 497 grains, and it was the main feature of the disease from which the deceased suffered. Dr Burns added that the average weight of this gland in a child was 200 grain®. The Coroner returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, adding that sufficient evidence had been adduced to show that proper care had been taken.