The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-08-03
THEY BUILT AN EAR.
Connecticut Doctors Performed a
Successful Operation.
Surgeons Make an OrIfico for Hearing
and Respectable Ear.

Ears can be made to order now almost
while you wait.
If your next baby, instead of having q
fine, shapcly shell Of an ear that the nurse
and all the women in the neighborhood
will rave over, should happen to have just
a kind of bump that doesn't look like
anything at all, don't be discouraged.
Modern surgery Is not dismayed by any
such trifie MS that 1t goes TO work and
builds noses ard enrs and anything else
almost that the human face and figure lack
to be symmetrical
One Of the most ambitious, most deli
cate as well as the most successful Of the
recent ventures Of the new surgery was
the construction Of AN ear TO supply the
sad deficiency Of "A Connecticut baby.
The patient in this very skillful opera
ton was an infant with the euphonious
name Of Michael Kopeske. The child's
parents keep thriving boarding house in
Union City, Conn.
Michael Was healthy baby and comely
in all respects. save that some mischievous
fate had sent him into this breathing
world scarce half mado up in the matter
of ears. 1t was the source of vast embar-
rassment 90 the fond father and mother
that the b,hy should be thus incomplete,
and they knew that their discomfort was
small compared with that which the lack
of the ear would cause little Michael when
he grew older 1fis left ear was nothing
moS. than u meaningless lump, and the
absence Of n genuine ear made the child
look sadly ore sided.
The father and mother consulted .Drs.
Clemens DC Wclfe and Ford of Bridge
port They decided 70 see ii some means
could not bc devised OF making an ear
not alone an cl,tcr car that would improve
the youngsters looks, but an orifioe
through which he would be able TO hear,
for there was 30 orcTing at an in the
shabby substitute for AN ear with which
nature had govidcd him.
The baby, now sac0crely seven months
old, was taken TO DR.. Clemens Office, and
the council o: physicians set to work upon
it.
The child WINS carefully examined, but
il was Impossible t. find any sign Of an
opening whereby sound might he trans
mittcd 20 tho car drum and thence TO the
brain.
The first step, after an an@sthetic had
been applied and the child made unoon-
scious, WIS Co locate tho spot where tho
opening should have been. Then the oper-
alton bcEan--an operation which, so far as
records tell, las never been undertaken be-
fore.
An incision was made in the place where
the ear ought 20 be and way found from
the exterior OF the lump TO tho tympanum.
1t was found that tho interior formation
of the hearing apparatus was all normal.
Dividing and turning back the unorna-
mental knob OF nCsa which had disfigured
the infant, the three doctors sewed the
flaps to tho huad 20 hold them back and
stitched the four sections together.
That was Plastic surTcry with ven
geance. Thea spectrum was inserted In
the opening, to prevent its closing IA the
healing process went on. Altogether tho
operation WIS very successful one. 10
was bold one, too, but was performed
deftly and very quickly In all, the child
was under tho influcnce OF chloroform for
less than an hour.
His health and strength were not i'm
paired by tho ordeal, and the "madc To or,
der" ear Is growing into q really good look
ing member. DIR. Clemens is afraid that as
an orgnn Of hearing IL win not be in any
great degree soryiceable. He thinks thas
tho cartilaginous structure about the in
ner ear may have developed n tendency 20
ossifcation from having beon so long kept
in an unnatural condition New York
Journal