RARE FATAL ILLNESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 925, 19 March 1930, Page 7

RARE FATAL ILLNESS

CHILD DIES IN OPERATION Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday. Medical evidence was heard at the inquest today concerning the death of Shirley McKenzie, aged four, who died while under an anaesthetic on Saturday in the Christchurch Hospital. The operation was for adenoids. The child was carefully examined before being given the anaesthetic, and the heart and lungs and general physical condition found to be satisfactory. The patient took the anaesthetic easily, but then her breathing stopped without warning. Restorative measures were tried at once. Besides artificial respiration, strychnine was injected into the heart muscle, and a surgeon massaged the Heart, but without result. A post-mortem examination disclosed the condition of status lympliaticus. The witnesses described the condition as being of rare occurrence, rind all agreed that it was very unlikely to be discovered by the most thorough examination. Its effect was to render a patient unable to survive an anaesthetic. There was an enlargement of the thymus gland and of the lymph glands generally. The coroner found that death was due to this condition, hastened by the administration of the anaesthetic.