A CURIOUS SURGICAL EXPERIMENT.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 63, 11 February 1884, Page 3

A CURIOUS SURGICAL EXPERIMENT.

An interesting experiment in surgery is reported by the Philadelphia Press, of Dec. 8, as about to be made. Patrick Whalen was found by the police wandering, with his throat cut, in the park, and conveyed to the German Hospital. Dr. Weed, the surgeon in charge of the hospital, has had photographs of the cut taken. A first attempt was made to photograph the injury by means of a calcium light, but this proved unsuccessful, and recourse was had to the ordinary method. The throat was cut above the windpipe. An apparatus has been devised by Dr. Weed, consisting of a pipe and a bellows, for forcing a chemical substitute for air into the patient’s lungs. A slight case of pneumonia was developed, due partly to exposure and partly to an accumulation of dust in the windpipe. The method which will be attempted in the healing of the cut will be about as follows: — A rubber tube will be inserted through the nose and extended down through the windpipe into the stomach, through which food will be passed. The upper end of the windpipe will be allowed to heal, and also the outer throat skin, after which the tube will be removed and food passed through the windpipe. The only trouble will be with the epiglottis, which is cut in two parts. It is not known in what way this membrane will heal, or whether it will heal at all.