Taunton Courier 30 May 1934 Death from an aesthetic Mr Thomas MALE of Meare Elm Cottage West Hatch

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Taunton Courier. Bristol and Exeter Journal, and Western Advertiser 30 May 1934

Page 5 Column 4


DEATH FROM AN ÆSTHETIC

FIRST CASE OF THE KIND.

UNUSUALLY SAFE DRUG.

INQUEST VERDICT ON TAUNTON MAN.

Believed to be the first case of the kind in the country, a Taunton man has died from evipan, a drug recognised as one of the safest aesthetics to use.

The deceased, Thomas MALE, of Meare Elm Cottage, West Hatch, was a farm labourer, aged 58 years. The inquest was opened on Saturday week by the Coroner (Mr. G. P. CLARKE), and evidence of identification was given by Mr. Sidney George MALE, of 11, Coronation-street, Chard, deceased's son.

EXTRACTION OF TEETH NECESSARY.

At the resumed inquiry on Friday, Dr. James A. D. JOHNSTON, house physician, said MALE was admitted to the Taunton and Somerset Hospital on the previous Friday suffering form a cancerous growth of the tongue. It was necessary that his teeth should be extracted before radium treatment was given. At 9.20 p.m. He was taken to the operating theatre, and after an anaesthetic had been administered the teeth were extracted by Dr. GIBSON. Afterwards his condition appeared normal. He collapsed suddenly, and died at one a.m.

Dr. Godfrey CARTER, pathologist, said the <sic> made a post-mortem examination. On the large mass of cancer extending to the entrance of the throat. He was informed that the drug administered was evipan. Death was due to general anaethetic <sic> and advanced cancer of the tongue and glands. Dr. CARTER added that evipan was the safest anaesthetic to use in such a case, and in his opinion it was properly administered. It would have been impossible in this case to have given an overdose as it was taken from a glass capsule, containing an average dose, and the whole of it had not been used. MALE was a very bad subject for the anaesthetic, being in a poor state of health. The collapse was caused by the anaesthetic.

VALUE OF EVIPAN.

Producing a newspaper cutting, the Coroner said: “I read in a Sunday newspaper that more than 50,000 people have had this drug. Of these there were only six deaths, and they were not due to the anaesthetic. The drug has been described as 'momentous,' and has resulted in hundreds fewer people dying from anaesthetic. According to the Chief Medical Officer of Health it is absolutely safe.”

The Coroner returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, and said death was due to misadventure.

The widow, Mrs. Elizabeth MALE, in reply to the Coroner, said her husband had been in a poor state of health and had eaten very little.

Deceased's son asked Dr. CARTER if he thought an anaesthetic should have been administered when his father was in such a weak state.

Dr. CARTER replied that radium was the only possible chance of curing him, and it was doubtful whether that would have been successful. In order to give radium treatment, it was necessary to remove the teeth, and for that purpose the anaesthetic had to be administered.

Coroner, to Mrs. MALE: You were quite willing for him to have radium treatment? - Mrs. MALE: I told him he would not be strong enough to stand it.


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<NOTES: Thomas MALE son of Simeon MALE and Ann Sylvia WHITE, married Evelyn HOOPER and Elizabeth CROSS>