DEATH OF MAORI

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 614, 19 August 1933, Page 6

DEATH OF MAORI

inquest concluded MEDICAL EVIDENCE DISCLOSES THAT OPERATION ESSENTIAL DIED UNDER ANAESTHETIC . The inquest into the death of a Maori, Wilson Matthews, aged 23 years, who died at the Kmg George V. Hospital 011 August 9, under an anaesthetic preparatory to undergoing an operation, was concluded when medical evidence was given before the Coroner, Mr. W. L. Richards, at the Rotorua Courthouse yesterday afternoon. Dr. L. A. Lewis, medical superintendent of King George Y. Hospital stated that deceased had been admitt--ed to the hospital on August 5 suffering from ian abscess on the left side of the throat. General treatment was prescribed until August 9 when an operation was decided upon as the oniy possible chance of an improvement in the patient's condition. The presenee of the abscess had caused a loeking of the jaw through >a spasm of the jaw muscles. Before the commencement of the operation Dr. Dorsett had advised witness that the patient's breathing had ceased and every effort had been made to restore respiration, artificial respiration being continued for half an hour without success. Dr. Lewis stated that it was six years since a patient had died at the hospital under an anaesthetic, approximately 2500 operations havmg been performed during that period. ' In reply to the coroner, witness stated that the operation ha,d been delayed until August 9 as the abscess had not developed. The locking of the jaws had occurred several days after admission. Although-ifc had been realised that the operation was a serious one and risky, its perfornlance had been necessary in an attempt to save the life of the patient. He attributei the cause of death to the swollen state of the passages of the throat, accelerated by ia spasni due to the administration of the anaesthetic. Unusual Precautions Taken Dr. Richard Dorsett gave corroborative evidence concerning the condition of the deceased at the time of the operation and said that chloroform had been administrated as an anaesthetic very slowly. About three minutes after giving the anaesthetic a sudden respiratory failure had occurred and he had been assisted by Dr. Bertram in an effort to restore respiration. He was of opinion that death was due to a spasm accelerated by the anaesthetic and the pressure of the abscess, which was well developed in the throat at the roet of the tongue. Prior to giving the anaesthetic he had taken the usual precautions, chloroform being selected as the least irritant of anaesthetics. Evidence of having conducted a post-mortem examination was given by Dr. W. S. Wallis, who said that in his opinion death was due primarily to severe toxemia arising from the condition of the abscess, together with a spasm arising from the same conu.t.on and inrense swelling and conges..on present throughout the resp ratory cract. In ms opinion the con^a.ion of the patient was sucn that an operat'on, under an anaesthet.c, .vas necessary, the extent of the sep1 _ poisoning being such that deceased V\ luid otherwise have died from suifoc.atiun. An operatlcn at least pre-c-nted a possibdity of Ihe lii'e of de-c-'aped being sa\ed. Coroner's Finding Statmg that the evidence disclosed that an operation was necessary and that every thing had been done by the three doctors present in an ur_successful effort to restore breathing, the coroner found thar deceased died on August 9 from asphyxia, caused chrough toxemia and accelerated by the admlimstration of chloroform, prior to an urgent and necessary throat i peration with the object c f urahmig »n extensive septic accumlation. J.t would appear fiom the ev.dence, he said, that suffocation wou. I noceasarily have foliowed ha-i the o_ eration not been undertuken to dr:. .1 the abscess. _____