The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1892-04-11
OVARIOTOMY.
How a Sixty Pound Tumor Is Re-
moved. An Unusual Event at
Cheiofsa Aao1

How a Sixty Pound Tumor Is Re-
moved. An Unusual Event at
Christ's Hospital.
Think of sixty pounds of flesh and fluids
being removed from the intestinal cavity of
The human body, and yet that body lives, re-
covers and serves its owner better than everi
The feat of removing q small woman from
large tumor, as newspaper once facetious-
y put 1t, was accomplished at Christ's Hos
pital last Wednesday. The tumor was one of
The large ovarian grOwths one hears about
occasionally which W. Ugh nearly as much as
The remainder of the body. and the patient
vas the wife of Rock Island railroad man.
A great surgical operation is an exciting
thing. 1t is like snatching life from death, like
the resuscitatiOn of drowned man, or the
rescue of child from burning building.
1t has the same elements of danger of terri
BILE suspense, of the display of nerve and
courage, followed by the same nervous re-
action when it is successfully accomplished.
surgical science and skill is like seeing one
of Bernhardt's plays. The nervous system
becomes so wrought up that when it is over,
one feels like dropping into a chair to recover.
l, as representative of the press, was per-
mitted to behold this particular operation I
speak of. DR.. II. w. Roby, of this city, was
the surgeon in charge and for his assistants
DR.. McIntyer, of Topeka, and DR.. Mrs. Farm
ham, also of this city. The lady who was to
undergo the operation had been taken to tho
hospital in q carriage by her husband the
day before. Miss Wood, nurse, trained in
the celebrated hospitals of Boston, was
present.
A long, green operating table suggestively
occupied the center of the room where the
operation was to take place. The courage
GUS little lady who was about to be almost
cut in two, walked in without a tremOr and
was helped upon the table. DR.. Anderson
then administered the ether, and watched
the pulse while the other attendants stood
eter which must be kept standing at eighty
degrees, no more, no less, until the end of
the operation. At last DR.. Anderson, having
announced the patient completely under tho
influence of the anasthetic. DR.. ROby, with
both arms bare to the elbow, takes up gilt
tering knife of peculiar shape, and barring
the abdomen, cuts slowly and carefully, like
a draughtsman drawing graceful curve,
making an opening nearly fourteen inches
long. Into this he dextrously thrusts his
hand and finds the tumor so large aud grown
SO firmly on the tissues on every side that it
cannot be removed intact. 1t is composed
of many hundred sacs filled with fluids and
feshy grOwths. These are broken INTO one
by one.
Everything InOVeO WITH the utmost celerlty
and silence, and no one was permitted to
speak except the surgeon in charge.
The entire operation required an hour and
a half, and during all that time the work of
removing the InonstrOus growth went on
steadily, each one of the eight people en-
gagged in the delicate work moving about like
clOckwork. At last it was finished. Every
movement of the knife had been scientific
ally made. The last vestige of the tumor
had been taken out. The wound was sewed
up, and now came the critical period. The
patient was lifted from the table, placed in
bed in an adjoining room and under most
careful treatment, slowly revives.
DR.. ROby, the surgeon, remained all night.
Occasionally the patient had sinking spells,
but by use of tine electric battery and stimu-
lants she was rallied. and her temperature
and pulse steadily fell. In the morning she
of no pain. and her recovery is
now nearly assured. The tumOr and the flu
id which it contained. weighed sixty pounds.
The weight of the patient before the Oper-
alton was 152 pounds. The growth had first
been noticed three years ago. 1t had in
creased in size until it had pressed the stom-
ach, heart, lungs and bowels into the upper
part of the cavity and she could scarcely take
or breathe with comfort. Her
death from the tumOr was only the matter of
a month or two. She is only twenty-four |
years of age and her youth will do much to
help her recover.-F. H. c., in Topeka Daily
CAPITAL Feb. ID.