e
operation undertaken when the patient was in a dangerous state of
exhaustion was as far as possible safeguarded by every precaution, and
we regret we have not been favored with the particulars of the methods
employed. A death following the administration of ether is reported
from the Corbett Hospital, Stourbridge.[1] The patient, aged
thirty-nine years, was admitted on September 21, 1897, suffering from
fracture of the right femur. A prolonged application of splints led to
a stiffness with adhesions about the knee joint which were to be dealt
with under an anaesthetic on December 8. Ether was given from a
Clover's inhaler; one ounce was used. The induction was slightly
longer than usual but was marked by no unusual phenomena. No sickness
occurred during or after anaesthesia and no respiratory spasm was seen.
There was a short struggling stage followed by true anaesthesia when
the operation, a very brief one, was rapidly performed. The patient
was then taken back to the ward and the corneal reflex was noticed as
being present. Voluntary movements were also said to have been seen.
Later he opened his eyes "and seemed to recognize an onlooker." After
this no special supervision was exercised. A hospital porter engaged
in the ward noticed the man was breathing in gasps; this was twenty
minutes after the patient had been taken from the operating theater
and half an hour subsequent to the first administration of the ether.
The surgeons were fetched from the operating theater and found by that
time that the man was dead. "He was lying with his head thrown back,
so that no possible difficulty of breathing could have arisen due to
his position. The eyes were open and the lips slightly parted; nor was
there any sign of any struggle for breath having taken place." The
ether was analyzed and found to fulfill the British Pharmacopoeia
tests for purity. The necropsy revealed that the right heart was
distended with venous fluid blood. The lungs also were loaded with
blood, as were all the viscera. We cannot but feel that the fact shown
at the post mortem examination seemed to indicate that the man died
from asphyxia and not from heart failure. No doubt patients appear to
resume consciousness after an anaesthetic and even mutter
semi-intelligible words and recognize familiar faces. They then sink
into deep sleep just like the stupefaction of the drunken, and in this
condition the tongue falls back and the slightest cause--a little
th