Transfusion successful in a case of post partum hemorrhage / by Thomas Edward Beatty.

  • Beatty, Thomas Edward, 1801-1872.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Transfusion successful in a case of post partum hemorrhage / by Thomas Edward Beatty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    checked, and I saw no other chance for her but transfusion. I knew Dr. Robert M‘Donnell (who fortunately lived close at hand) had the apparatus for transfusion, and was skilled in the operation, and I summoned him and Mr. W. Colles, and Dr. Denham to a consultation. We met at 2 o’clock, and I laid my views before them. They all saw the urgency of the case, and the necessity for the operation. But just then a slight flickering of pulse was felt at the wrist, and the carotid artery gave a little stronger impulse to the finger, and it was judged right to wait some time longer. The pouring in of nourishment and stimulants was con- tinued, and the external warmth was continued. Up to 6 o’clock matters remained in the same state, but after that every bad symptom became manifest. She became insensible; the gasping and sighing were continual, and the restlessness and tossing were constant; the countenance became ghastly, and the jaw dropped. All trace of pulse had long vanished, and death seemed very near at hand. Finding matters in this state, I determined not to let her die without making the only effort that, in my mind, could save her, and I again summoned the same gentlemen to her aid. Mr. Colies and Dr. R. M‘Donnell arrived at 9 o’clock, but Dr. Denham was not able to attend. It was now too manifest that she had not many minutes to live, and we proceeded to perform transfusion. Her husband readily offered to furnish the blood, and about ten ounces were drawn from his arm by Dr. R. M'Donnell. This, as it flowed into a common bowl, was agitated briskly with a glass rod, in order to separate the fibrine; and the agitation was kept up after the full quantity had been drawn, and for some minutes after, until a large coagulum of fibrine adhered to the glass rod. During all this time the bowl was kept floating in a basin of hot water. The blood was then strained through a muslin cloth, and all the fibrine was thus separated. All this was done in the parlour, and the blood thus prepared was carried up to the patient’s bed-room. The difficulty of the operation now commenced. The patient was as a corpse, bloodless; there was no trace of a vein to be found in her arm. A ligature tied round above the elbow showed nothing. By feeling cautiously, what we imagined to be a vein Avas perceived. Dr. M'Donnell, who performed this operation with that skill, coolness, and dexterity for which he is remarkable, now adopted the expedient of pinching up a fold of skin at the bend of the arm, and then running a narrow bistouri through it, split it up, leaving