A WOMAN OF PLUCK. Enduring a Painful Surgical Operation Without Anesthetics.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 204, 21 May 1887, Page 6 (Supplement)

A WOMAN OF PLUCK. Enduring a Painful Surgical Operation Without Anesthetics.

A case of extraordinary pluck upon the part of a woman occurred at the Jefferson Medical College recently. The lady applied to have a tumor removed from her arm. The physicians decided to have the operation performed in the presence of the students, and when the hour for the clinic arrived the lady was invited into the amphitheatre. The doctors told her that they would havo to adminibter ether, as the operation ■would prove so very pninful. She refused to allow this to be done, and then the physicians tried to induce her to take a glass of brandy, Avhich she likewise refused. They next oflbijed her a glass of wine, but the lady simply waved it away, saying that she would be able to undergo the operation. The doctors consulted for a moment and decided to take the woman at her word and go ahead. They bared her arm to r.he shoulder, laid her on her side and then buried the knite in the ilesh, cut a biggash over six inches in length, pulled the bleeding pieces apart, removed the tumor, scraped the bone and then sewed the parts together. .During all this time the patient never moved. Not a cry escaped her, and as she gritted her teeth her face became as white as a sheet. The physicians and students looked on with amazement at the plucky woman, and marvelled how she could endure the terrible .sufiering without a whimper. After the operation was concluded Dr. Brinton, turning to the 600 students, said : '* There is not a man among you who could have stood this operation as heroically as this woman."