PROTEST TO CORONER

Southland Times, Issue 22497, 6 December 1934, Page 16

PROTEST TO CORONER

ANAESTHETISTS AS WITNESSES.

Protest against the practice of calling anaesthetists as witnesses at inquests on patients who died while undergoing operations was made recently by Dr. Ivan Magill, a London anaesthetist, at a coroner’s inquiry at Hammersmith. . Dr. Magill said he did not think it was to the benefit of the public generally to read details of operation cases. One could imagine the effect it would have on a patient about to undergo an operation. Nor did he consider an anaesthetist an essential witness. Why was not the surgeon called? The coroner: You have my personal sympathy. This matter has cropped up on several occasions. The point is the anaesthetist and not the surgeon generally comes to the court when a preson dies during an operation. Dr. Magill: It seems rather an injustice to one particular section of the medical community. All anaesthetists get out of it is unwanted publicity. Patients often refuse to have the anaesthetist booked for the operation because they had seen his name the nrevious night in connection with a fatal anaesthetic case. “The public only hear of our fatalities,” Dr Magill added. “They do not hear about cases when, we bring a patient back from the brink of the grave by taking a risk.” Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the pathologist, replying to the coroner, remarked that he sympathized with the protest.