The Portland daily press., 1877-12-19


than was necessary and the amount of bleeding
was unusually small. The bone was irritable
and sore. Never saw two flaps go together bet
ter in all my practice.
DR.. Hunt, the Superintendent, was called
and stated in commencing that he was not re-
sponsble for the medical or surgical operations
but on this occasion assisted DR.. Weeks and DR..
Dana in the operation and was positive that
the man did not bleed to death. The articles
given were to prevent bleeding which was an
ticipated, as Mr.. Eaton had told the surgeons
before they began the operation that he was
subject to fits of bleeding. 1t was feared at one
time that the ligamoents would part, but they
did not. The wound did bleed once as DR..
Weeks stated, but not to any amount. He bled
at the nose slightly at one time, but 1t was the
general opinion that it was blood poison which
caused his death. In regard to the statements
that the blood had saturated the beds and ran
through to the floor he said that was impossi-
BILE, as the beds were all covered with rubber
blankets. There was no secondary hemorhage
and in all there could not have been more
than pint and half of blood come from the
wound in all.
Mr.. Jordan. the nurse, said there was no
loss of blood of any account Only saw one
lot of blood and that was when he was dressing
the wound, when he saw less than table tea
spoonful.
DR.. Hill, the house surgeon, substantiated
Dr. Weeks statement fully. He remembered
having conversation with Dr. Higgins in the
presence of Dr. Files, when he said that there
was both arterial and venous hemorrhageI said
the clothing and bandges were saturated but
did not say that there were whole handfnls of
blood Should have said in the records weak
from blood poison instead OF weak from loss of
blood The ergotine was used to stop the Oozing
of blood. Do not think the flow of blood was
over quart in ALL Did not think his prostrs-
ton was due to hemorhage. The notes referred
to 10 the records were written hastily and with
out due consideration.
Dr. Andrews, the physician in the medical
department., who took DR.. Hills place, in his
absence for few days. corroborated the state
ment of DIR. Weeks.
Officer Luther Sterling, hrother-in-law Of
the deceased, said that he visited him several
times during his sickness and he always spoke
highly of the attention he received Do not
think there is any dissatisfaction among his
friends.
At this point the defence rested their case
and DR.. Tewksbnry was called as an expert by
DR.. Files. He said that the length of the am
putaton depends upon the appliance to be
used. Where the end of limb fails to heal it
is my practice to turn back the flesh and cut off
a short piece of the bone. The operation is
very simple one and is often performed at
places where they fit artificial limbs. He said
that if the flap was not healthy he should go up
until it was healthy. DR.. Weeks explained
that that was simply what he did in the case in
point. He said that DR.. Higgins came to him
in the Preble House and said that one of his
patients had been taken to the Hospital and
had died and there was something very mys-
terious about the case. He said the man died
of hemorrhage, but DR.. Weeks had said he died
of blood poison. There was such diversity of
statements that ne said he didn't know what to
think Of it. DR.. Tewksbury denied the state
ment that he had anything to do with the pub
location of the articles in the Argus.
DR.. Gordon was absent from the city at the
time the operation was performed, but from what
he could learn the operation performed was the
best thing to do. He admitted that in some
cases he had turned back the skin and taken
oft few inches of the bone as DR.. Tewksbury
described
Aletter was read from DR.. Higgins in which
he asked if the operation could not have been
simpler even if the stump was not left in so
handsome shape to look at He said, "Are
we justified in risking a human lie to get
stump as pretty as dime DIR. Hill had told
him that they scraped out large lots of blood.
He was far from being satisfied with the case
when he was in Portland After hearing DIR.
Weeks statements and reading the record, l
said to Dr. Files that L was dissatisfied and
disguised with the whole thing" In closing
the letter he said that he was not pleased with
the TRADE in the newspapers as it could do no
good.
This closed the testimony and the board re-
tired at s o'clock to consider the case.
After several hours of celebrating the board
adopted set of resolutions to the effect that
the charges preferred by DR.. Files are not sus-
tanned by the evidence, aud that they were evil
IDENTIFY made with Misrepresentation of the
facts. They suggest that the charges should
have been made to the Board of Directors in
stead of being published in newspaper. The
recommend that in future there
should be more attention given to the keeping
of the record of cases to prevent repetition of
such misunderstanding. The last resolution
expresses confidence in the hospital and its
officers.