NURSE ELECTROCUTED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 711, 11 December 1933, Page 3

NURSE ELECTROCUTED

KILLED FROM SHOCK WHILE ASSISTING H.OSPITAL R ADIOLOGI ST. The death oi a nurse who was electrocuted — 50,000 volts piassing through her body — during the taking of an X-ray photograph in Wimbledon Hospital, S.W., was the subject cf an inquest a't Wiimhledon. The victim was Dorothy Barnes, aged 26, of Douglas, Isle of Man, and it is stated to fe the first case of the kind. iDr. Richard Henry Singlehurst said that he was assisting the radiologist to 'take a photograph of a fracture of a woman's shoulder. Nurse Barnes was adjusting the : blanket over the patient when the radiologist said, "Stand clear," before he pressed the huitton. The. nurse stood back and the exposure was begun. About the fniddle of the exposure she put her hand forward to press the banket, and there was a cra,ck and a big spark, which seemed like a yellow flame. In looked as though the bed were in flames. Nurse Barnes recoiled but said she was all right and smiled. A few seconds later she said she felt funny and fell to the floor, and although artiflcial .respiration w.as tried, she • died. Death was due to beart failure, owing to the passage of the current through the body. Nurse Barnes' father, who is an electrician, said that he understood X-ray worlc was usually carried out with an earthed couch. I't seemed , that the photograph was being taken on an ordinary bed, which had rubber castors and was not, therofore, earthedl He suggested that it was possible for the bed to become charged so 'that any person coming in contact with it would receive a shock. ;Mr. W. Renning, managing director of the manufacturers of the apparatus said that they h'ad supplied it to hospitals all over the country and there had never been an accident before. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death with no hlame attachving to anyone.