The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-08-13
APPENDIX TAKEN OUT.
Operation Performed on a Resi-
dent of Stafford, Kan.
At the StOrmOnt Hospital in
This City.
Because so Frequent Nowadays
How it is Done.

Have you ever had appendicitis?
If you never have had an attack you
| don't realize what an enjoyable hour
| and half you have defrauded the doc
| tors out of. For the up-to-date method
| of treating appendicitis is the removal
| of the vermiform appendix, and all
| doctors love to perform a successful
operation.
| But there is no necessity of feeling
| discouraged over the fact, for everyone
| is liable to have appendicitis now that
il is in style. 1t used to be called in
| f1ammation of the bowels and people
generally died of it. Now the lives of
hundreds of people are saved every
| year by an operation.
| There have been so many scientific ex-
| plantations of appendicitis since the doc
/ tors first discovered that there was
| such a disease, that the majority of peo-
| pie know in general and wholly theo-
retical way what it means. They know
! from reading about it that there is a
| little sideshow attachment fastened on
| the intestines in what is known as the
| right lilac region" with no other pur-
| pose, apparently, but the possibility of
| keeping its owner in style by at some
| date causing appendicitis. The scien-
| tific explana lions have told them that
| this is the ''vermiform appendix" and
that in nature it is similar to a sensi-
| tive plant. That is to say, that
| when some foreign "hobo" waltzes in
| to the appendix for a quiet snooze, the
| appendix Immediately proceeds to close
| and bury it alive, and that when the
| awakening occurs the result is some
| thing like a middle-of-the-road Populist
| convention.
| This is the theoretical knowledge that
| the people have cleaned from the scien-
| tific explanations, but practically only
! those who have had it and the phySi-
| slams who officiated at the interesting
| ceremonies know anything about it.
They know nothing of the excruci-
| ating, torturing pain that comes sud-
| denly upon the appendicitis patient
| when the little SideShOw attachment
! closes on some unsuspeeting microbe
or wandering substance. They have
not seen the expression of anxiety steal
| over the face of the skilled physician
as he deftly passes his fingers over the
| right lilac region and inquiries into the
| history of the attack, and they have
never experienced the feeling of dread
| when he announces that the operating
! table and the knife is the only road
! to relief. But all this comes to the
| appendicitis patient. All pains in the
! lilac region are not appendicitis, how
| ever, and people should not become I'M
necessarily alarmed over cramp in the
| abdomen.
removal to the hospital. That is at
least in the majority of cases, for no
| surgeon at the present day will operate
| at home when it is at all possible to
remove the patient to hospital. This
| comes from the nineteenth century
physician's dread of the affectionate
| OdCnluS, OF DuSS, as InGy are pro-
| fessionally known, and be the home
| ever so Clearly the chances of infection
| are far greater there than at the hospi-
| tails.
Mr.. Charles Pollock, a resident of
| Stafford, Kan, was operated on at the
! Stormont hospital yesterday. Mr. Pol
| lock went to the hospital the afternoon
! before and was operated on at 10 o'clock
| yesterday morning. Surgeons prefer to
| operate in appendicitis cases in the
! morning, and operations generally oc-
tc-T1r hot
| urgent cases.
! Mr.. Pollock was allowed but light
| liquid repast the night before, and was
! denied any food whate ever in the morn
! ing. Instead of discussing an elabor-
| ate breakfast, he had the opportunity
| of spending the time after awakening
! up to the time of the operation in con-
| templatlng anaeSthesia and surgical
procedure, the possibility of a fatal re-
| suit and other equally interest ting and
| cheerful subjects.
If his room happened to be next to
| the operating room he could have de-
voted a portion of his time listening to
! the preparations going on there all in
| honor of himself. He could have heard
| his anatomy and appearance discussed
! by the surgeons or nurses from purely
a professional standpoint, the discuss
| ions punctuated here and there by the
| cHnk of a knife or forceps or scissors
as it is dropped into the sterilizing
pan. At last, if he was still listening
and had not buried his head in the
| DeOC1OlIGS TO smut out all sound. he
| might have heard the surgeon in
| charge of the operation inquire: us
| everything ready?" And receiving a
satisfactory reply, his next expression
/ was: Bring in the patient"
! His door was opened moment later
and a couple Of nurses and a physician
entered. A blanket was thrown over
him and he was picked up bodily. In
a twinkling he was resting on the glass
| top of the operating table.
The patient had scarcely time to
note his surroundings in a general way
when an inhaler was thrust over his
nose and mouth and he commenced to
breathe in the sickly-sweet fumes of
ether. At the same time finger was
placed on his pulse and an ear touched
I his breast over the heart. This WIS
| about the last thing he remembered,
as it takes but a few inhalations of the
! anaeStheSia to send a man to dream
land, where he remains inhabitant
| until the operation is completed
| When Mr.. POllock's breathing became
like that of a sound sleeper, and his
hand fell Imply to his side when rails
ed, he was in a condition to stand the
knife. The surgeons, clothed in white
cloth sacks, covering their entire per-
son to below the knees, advanced to
their positions at the table and the
nurses stood ready to attend them.
Then the operation commenced.
The left hand of the surgeon located
the exact line along which the incision
was to be made, and in his right hand
half raised poised the small sharp knife
| The DlaGe Cleaned a moment IN the
sunlight through the skylight of the
operating room, and then it was pass
ing with a quick movement of the sur
geon's hand in straight line over the
| flesh of the body. The incision was
| about five inches in length.
The first movement of the knife sew
cred the flesh only, and the peritoneum,
| or lining of the abdomen, was laid bare.
| Quickly as the incision was made, the
| attending physicians were as quick,
| and forceps were instantly fastened on
the blood vessels at either side as soon
as red dots of blood marked their To-
cation.