DEATH OF BOY

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22475, 9 January 1943, Page 4

DEATH OF BOY

Choked Under Anaesthetic

'N.Z.P.A.) AUCKLAND. Jan. 8. Searching questions were asked by the Coroner. Mr F. K. Hunt, at an inquest concerning the death in the Auckland Hospital of a 14-year-old boy, David Laurence McCarthy, of Ponsonby.

The boy. who had badly fractured his right forearm as a result of a fall from a tree, was choked by a piece of potato which he vomited while still under the anaesthetic half-an-hour after the operation had been performed. At the direction of the Coroner. Dr. McGregor Grant, chairman of the Hospital Visiting Staff, and Dr. E. J. Cronin, a member of the Hospital Executive, were present in a consultative capacity, and every aspect of the case was full}' examined. It was found that the case had most unusual features, and that all that could have been done had been done by the doctors and nurses concerned.

At the conclusion Mr Hunt said that he had been shocked at the circumstances of the death, and before the inquiry was held he had been most concerned about the matter. The evidence had shown, however, that it was a case of misadventure, such as might happen in 1000 times. None of the doctors present had experienced such i case in long years of practice. A verdict was returned accordingly.