Singular Cause of Death

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 141, 26 May 1892, Page 4

Singular Cause of Death

A man named Frederick Willis died suddenly last Wednesday night, at the house of John Redin, bootmaker. Victoria street, Auckland, where ho had been staying. Willis was in bad health some fiye years ago, when, drinking some soup one day, he swallowed a bone, which lodged in his right lung, and was never extricated, eventually causing his death. At the Coroner's inquest, Thomas Long, who bad been iv business with deceased, deposed that he was present when he swallowed the bone, and ever since that time he had suffered from coughing and distress of breathing, saying that the bone had gone into one of his lungs. It was not until about a year after this accident that it was mentioned to a me&ical man, Dr Bewes, who then advised Willis to submit to an operation, but as the latter thought the remedy worse than the disease, he would not consent. Dr Roberton, who made a post mortem examination of the body of the deseased, deposed that he had found the right lung utterly collapsed and solid, with numerous small abscesses containing purulent matter. In tbe right bronchus, buried in the substance of the lung, about two and a half inches from the bifurcation oi the trachea, Ie found a small irregularly-shaped knob of bone. This was the cause of the diseased condition of the lung. Witnesß did not think that any operation, even at the first, would have been of any avail in extracting the bone. Death was due to chronic pulmonary disease, caused irom this bone having become imbedded in the lung. The jury returned a verdice in accordance with the medical evidence. Tbe bone, produced at tbe inquest weighed about an eighth of an ounce.