DIONNE QUINTUPLETS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1938, Page 7

DIONNE QUINTUPLETS

REMOVAL OF TONSILS NECESSARY. DR DAFOE’S PROBLEM. Surgeons will separate the Dionne quintuplets from their tonsils and adenoids this faff, according to reliable reports here. The quints may experience the first sugical operation in their eventful young lives. Dr A. R. Dafoe, physician to the famous four-year-olds, would not confirm or deny .the reports. “We never know what will happen from day to day,” he said. Fearful of risking the quints’ lives under a general anaesthetic, Dr Dafoe has opposed the operations in the past, but the three-week illness of the youngsters from throat infections in August is understood to have forced him to the conclusion that the removal of their tonsils is necessary. The adenoids will come out at the same time. Coincident with the disclosure that ihe operations have been decided upon, came information that Emilie was much more seriously ill in August than was announced. Her life is said to have been in danger for a few days. The quints’ tonsils have been diseased for a year or more, but Dr Dafoe has clung to the hope that treatment would carry them over the critical stage and operations would not be necessary. He said recently that they would be undertaken only as a last resort.

A general anaesthetic probably will be necessary because children usually are frightened when a local anaesthetic is used. There is also the consideration that four-year-olds won’t be quiet enough to permit a surgeon to work with a local.