SURGEON REMOVES HIS OWN APPENDIX.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17105, 29 March 1921, Page 2

SURGEON REMOVES HIS OWN APPENDIX.

Dr. Evan O'Neil Kane, chief surgc«i of Kane Summit Hospital, PennsyH vania, U.S.A., recently performed aoj operation upon himself for chrtonic ap? pendicitis (says the "New York Hefaid"). Sitting on the operating tnblo propped up fy pillows, and with a nutW holding his head forward that ho might see, he calmly cut his way into TjlJ abdomen, carefully dissecting tho tit" sues and closing the blood-vessels al ho- worked his way in. Locating tit appendix, he pulled it tip, out it off) and bent the stump under. :.. Ho applied a local atuosthetlc,' anuj when seen hy a reporter a few houii after the operation, declared ho wM feeling fine and saw no reason- why ho would not recover rapidly. ( Dr. Kane is 60 years old. Ho m been a surgeon for 37 years, and hi* operated nearly 4000 appendicitis case* Nor is he a stranger m the field .9 Relf-operating, as he amputated ono » his fingers two years ago. s

The operation to remove liis &PEJ* dix waa'witnessed by liis brother; lift Tom L. Kane, and two other physician* b9sides nurses. He went ju* far rris the operation as he ever (Toes- with* case, allowing his assistants w> the wound. ■$ "I believed," said Dr. Kane, ."fcli* I could exemplify in my own case W onlv that the operation could be d«i» without the use of a general anwjj thetic, thus saving many individuM who have heart or other serious troubW from the dangers of a general anJW thetic, but that it would show thatjj a surgeon can actually do the' "WOP upon-himself, thero need bo no feaf.W the part of the patient of having aM other do it." . • ■■■.-,

So far as is known, only two otb* self-removals of'the appendix t are < record. These cases are believed t have been of a far less, delicate natflf than the Kane operation. In- D 5 Kane's case the operation is what SO' geons term an interval operation.