A Triumph of Surgery

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 99, 30 January 1886, Page 3

A Triumph of Surgery

The New York Tribune of November 30th reported ih.e_ first successful arterial transfusion in Bellvue HospitaL The method was the injection of the solution of salt and water into an artery against the action of the heart, the theory being that the heart is stimulated by arterial tension, and that one innocuous fluid is as good as another. The patient was a middleaged woman with a strong constitution who had been shot by her husbaud iv a fit of jealousy, the ball entering thu side of the face and carrying away part of the upper jaw and badly fracturing the bone. After a week of apparent progress in the hospital the nurse discovered late at night that Mrs Connolly was dying, secondary hemorrhage having set in. The body was cold aud clammy to tho touch, aad the dew of dissolution was on the forehead. Hypodermic injections of whisky were giyen at frequent intervals, aud warm bottles and clotha applied. The lacerated artery in the jaw was found with difficulty, the heart beating so low that the bleediug points could not be seen. All the ordinary remedies failed. The surgeon used injected solution of salt and water, and the heart gradually beat stronger. In a few minutes the patient returned to consciousness, and though very weak for^souiß days, has finally recovered.