MATRON’S TRAGIC DEATH.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 22 September 1923, Page 9

MATRON’S TRAGIC DEATH.

OVERCOME BY DEADLY GAS. FUMIGATION INCIDENT. In tragic circumstances Mrs Abu. Marion .Larkin, aged thirty-four years, the matron of Woodburn, an establishment conducted by the Association lor the Advancement of the Blind in Mali Street, Brighton Beach (.Melbourne), a» a convalescent home for blind people, met her death recently. She had been at Woodburn for only about a week. Under supervision three men lumigated three of the bedrooms in the women’s section of Woodburn at about 9 o’clock in the morning, using hydrocyanic acid gas, a particularly deadly vapour. Before the rooms were sealeu Mr Nance (supervisor) warned Airs Larkin of the dangerous nature of the gas. She replied that she had been a nurse at the war, and realised the danger. With his three assistants Mr Nance returned to the home at 4 o’clock in the /ifternoon to open the rooms. Before this was done the sixteen inmates of the home were led from the building to the grounds. The windows and doors of the rooms were then opened to allow the gas to escape. Noticing Airs Larkin sweeping in the passage near the rooms, Mr Nance, who had stationed his assistants in various parts of the building to proven i any of the inmate* returning into tho house, urged her to go to the rear of the premises to see that none of the patients gained admittance by that way. She did so, and Mr Nance went to the front of the building. Apparently, however, Mrs Laskins retraced her steps to the centre of the house, and tried to enter a room which she used as a sitting room, for when Aliss Graham, of Brighton, who had been cleaning the room, opened the door leading to the hall some time later she found Airs Larkin prostrate on the floor in an unconscious condition about 20 yards from the rooms that had been fumigated. Miss Graham summoned Miss Hood, an employee at the home, and Air Nance, and Mrs-Larkin was removed to the front lawn, where attempts were made to revive her. These •were unsuccessful, however, and Dr. Gray, of Brighton, was summoned, lie ordered the woman’s removal to hospital, and she was taken _to the Alfred Hospital by Mr Nance in his motor ear. A few minutes after admittance she died. Airs Larkin was a trained mirse, and served abroad during the war. Her husband was killed in action. In a. statement which he made to the Brighton police. Air Nance said that he warned Mrs Larkin repeatedly not to go near the rooms that he had fumigated. Aliss Hood said that the fumes from the rooms permeated the whole of the establishment and slightly affected several members of the staff.