DEATHS FROM TETANUS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17951, 1 December 1932, Page 11

DEATHS FROM TETANUS

CONCERN IN SYDNEY ANOTHER HOSPITAL CASE a SYDNEY, Nov. 24. Another death has occurred from - tetanus, or lock-jaw, due, it is strongly i suspected, to infection from surgical ■ catgut used in an operation on the s patient 10 days previously. The victim J was Mrs. Margaret Sholdrick, and because two similar tragedies have already i occurred in public hospitals in New i South Wales, a great deal of alarm has ; been caused. Prompt' action has been - taken by the Government to prohibit - the use of a certain brand of catgut ; that was imported from Germany, and • the Minister of Health has instituted a special inquiry. ’ Mrs. Sholdrick went into the Royal South Sydney Hospital on November 8 for a. minor operation, which was car- i lied out two days later. She was pro- - 1 ! grossing favorably, and she expected to i be discharged from the institution i 3 within a fortnight. She became very i ill on November 18, and the doctors 1

diagnosed tetanus. They spared nothing in their efforts to save the woman’s life. Thousands of units of anti-toxin serum were injected, but all to no purpose. The woman gradually became worse and 1 she died on Tuesday. A doctor from the Hoard of Health conducted a postmortem examination, and her death will be the subject of a special inquiry by the board. There are still largo quantities of German catgut in stock at the various hospitals, and definite instructions have been given that this should not be used. All hospitals have been instructed to purchase English catgut, and this will involve them in additional expenditure to the extent of about £15,000 a year. In the three cases in which death' has followed operations the same brand of catgut has been used. Fear is now felt for the lives of others, and the medical authorities at the various hospitals where German catgut lias been used are anxiously watching their patients. As a precaution they have already administered anti-toxin serum. It is explained that the tetanus bacill us lives in the intestinal tract of various animals, including sheep, and catgut used in operations is made from the intestines of sheep. Catgut is made from carefully sterilised material, but even careful sterilisation sometimes fails (o kill the strongly resistant tetanus | bacillus. tk