THE CONLEY CASE.

Evening Star, Issue 4284, 18 November 1876, Page 4

THE CONLEY CASE.

The facts are shortly as follows ; —A woman named Charlotte Conley, aged 49, was operated upon by Mr R Robertson, on September 22, for ovarian tumor, in the presence of other surgeons. The case was a very bad one, and there was considered to be little or no hope of the patient's life. During the operation, a pair of buil-dog forceps (a small instrument less than an inch long, and something like a paper clasp) was used to hold the arteiy. As is usual, some of the surgeons present were invited by the operator to leel the interior of the wound, and one of them in doing so accidentally touched the forceps with the cuff of his shirt sleeve, the result being that the artery and the forceps immediately, sprang back inwards, and were lost sight of. All the surgeons present were aware of the accident, but owing to the precarious state of the patient it was considered dangerous to search for - the forceps at the time, it being considered that if the woman recovered the wound could be re-opened, and the instrument extracted. The wound was therefore sewn up, leaving the forceps inside. Before closing the wound, the operator asked the nurse attending whether she had the proper number of sponges. This is !a question always asked at the end of such operations in which several sponges are used to absorb the flow of blood. The nurse answered in the affirmative, and no idea was entertained that anything beyond the forceps had been left in the wound. The patient was then removed from the operating table to her bed, and died on the following day from exhaustion and hemorrhage > 21 hours after the operation. A post mortem examination of the body was held on September 23, when, in addition to the forceps, which was expected to be found, a sponge was discovered in the interior of the wound. The medical committee, to whom the matter has been referred for investigation, consist of the following:—Mr Girdlestone (chairman), Mr Blair, Mr E. KobertSDn (the operator concerned), Mr Kaokin, and Drs Dempster/ftockett, Haig, Mal'colmson, Barrett,and Balls-Hedley,