Alleged death from ether : to the editor of the British Medical Journal.

  • Bigelow, Henry Jacob, 1818-1890.
Date:
[1875?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Alleged death from ether : to the editor of the British Medical Journal. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    ered of the first importance, before operating, to re-establish respiration, pulse, and color; after which more ether might be administered, to complete the anaesthesia. But in this case no such efforts were made, and no such interval was allowed. After a few seconds which were occupied by the operation of iridectomy, the patient still livid from his struggle with the closely applied cone, the pulse became imperceptible, the breath- ing was suspended, and in about a minute he was dead.* To this overwhelming effect of asphyxia upon a slender sub- ject was doubtless added a certain amount of ether inebriation; but there is abundant evidence that this was but partial and in- complete. The quantity of ether administered was inconsiderable ; and it is distinctly stated that the patient, when his legs were vigorously flagellated, and the chest freely slapped with a wet towel, cried out lustily, and kicked about on the table, during the one minute he lived after the operation. Narcotism had not even reached insensibility to pain. No such imperfect ether anaesthesia can be held as principal in such a death. It would be equally unphilosophical, in view of these facts, and in an endeavor to shift responsibility, to accuse the improb- able shock of so slight a surgical operation, and still more any mysterious and as yet undiscovered property of ether, outside of that familiar, gradual, and comparatively innocuous influ- ence which it possesses in common with other intoxicating agents. Further reference will be made to this. A word about restoratives. The most effectual method of resuscitating a patient asphyxiated or over-dosed with ether is at once and quietly to get good air into his lungs. The volatile quality of both chloroform and ether makes their elimination from the pulmonary surfaces so easy, that, even when breath- ing seems to have ceased, a little thoracic movement, artificially assisted, generally enables the patient himself to re-establish respiration, and brings up the pulse. A feeble boy, who had exhausted his strength in a violent struggle for breath and life, would have no great stock in store to respond to a vigorous * The fact that the pulse improved during a brief interval, does not necessarily modify the general aspect of this case. — See Principles and Prac- tice of Medical Jurisprudence, by Alfred Swaine Taylor, M. D., etc., etc.