DEATH OF GIRL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 146, 22 June 1937, Page 8

DEATH OF GIRL

MEDICAL PRECAUTIONS CORONER EXPRESSES DISSATISFACTION EVIDENCE AT INQUEST [ Ter Piesa Association. J AUCKLAND, June 21. Dissatisfaction with the precau4ons taken by a medical pracntioner in the performance of an operation for the removal of tonsils was expressed by the City coroner, Mr. F. K. Hunt, at an inquest touching the death, on June 2, of Doreen Lily Paton, aged 17 i years, under an anaesthetic at the surgery of Dr. Albert Arthur Huse. The coroner stated that in his opinion another qualifleld medical man should have been in attendance, and he proposed to bring the matter under the notice of the Medical Board. Dr. Gilmour, who performed the post mortem examination, stated that, apart from unhealthy tonsils and adenoids, the organs of the girl’s body were healthy. Death, in h.s opinion, was due to asphyxia caused by the action of an anaesthetic on the respiratory centre of the brain. In reply to the coroner he said that the removal of tonsils from an adult was considered a major operation and the person performing the operation should have a properly qualified assistant. He thought it was usual to put a case of the kind into hospital. He was of opinion that the patient in this case died from an anaesthetic. The need for the oresence of a second medical man arose out of the possibility of an emergency such as hemorrhage. He had known of patients succumbing, as in this case, even when there were two duly qualified medical men in attendance. Dr. Hase, a duly qualified and registered medical practitioner, stated that on June 1 he had been called to a patient in Manukau Road. Her tonsils were much swollen and she had great difficulty in breathing. He arranged for her to visit his surgery the following morning to have the tonsils removed. The Coroner: Why didn’t you send her to hospital? Witness: I am a duly qualified man and I usually leave it to the patient whether the operation should be in hospital or in my surgery. You agree this is a major operation?—Yes. Why did’t you call in another medical man?—l think tnere was no work for two medical men as the administering of the ether and the operation were separate and two men could not work at the one timeWitness said there were present at the operation his nurse, who was not registered herself and a Mr Meuli, an endocrinologist. Witness administered the anaesthetic and the patient started struggling violently and had to be held by Meuli and the nurse. Immediately the patient quietened down she Became cyanosed and the pulse and breathing stopped. The anaesthetic had been stopped before the pulse and breathing c?ased. She had been swallowing pus from the tonsils and witness felt that the severe exertion in the struggling caused the heart to give out. He did not believe the patient died of anaesthes’a. He fe.t that in the open ether method used in this case the patient got such an abundance of air that death from anaesthesia resulting from an overdose of the anaethetic, was practically impossible. ur. Giimour, recalled, stated that all appearance of the body were those caused by a death from asphyxia and not by death from heart failure. There was no obstruction to the air passages to account for asphyxia- It was not usual for such operations to be performed without the assistance of a qualified medical man except in cases of emergency. Catherine Wilkins, nurse for Dr. Huse’s surgery, and Percy Meuli, endocrinologist, gave evidence. “I have held many inquests on people who have died under anaesthetics and it is quite possible this was a pure accident,” stated the coroner, •'but I am not at all satisfied that this girl was properly treated. I think Dr. Huse should not have attempted such an operation without the assistance of a properly-qualified man. He had no such assistance, just an unregistered nurse and a man who had no medical experience whatever except through a correspondence school. I find that the cause of death was asphyxia caused by the action of ether on the respiratory centre of the brain. After hearing the evidence I am not satisfied that it was a justifiable thing for Dr. Huse to perform such as haemorrhage might occur, rean adult without a properly-qualified assistant being available. This is a major operation, and an emergency such as hemorrhage might occur, requiring the assistance of another qualified man. This should have been known to Dr. Huse. ard I therefore propose to send to the Medical Council these depositions so that it can take such action as it thinks is called for.”