The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1905-03-07
IMITATION SURGERY
st4AM OPERATIONS ARE OFTEN PER-
FORMED ON PATIENTS.

Persons Suffering From Various
Forms of Hysteria Are Liable to
Insist on Surgical Treatment-Hovv
the Operations Are Performed.
You will probably be surprised to
learn, remarked the house surgeon of
big hospital, that there are many
sane people today who believing that
they are threatened with some danger
GUS disease, insist on undergoing severe
operations in order that their lives may
be saved. OF course we do not really
perform these operations, but have
assisted at many imaginary ones In or
der to crafty the within of patient
suffering from some form of hysteria.
remember recent case Of a woman
who was absolutely convinced that she
was suffering from an internal tumor.
] Curiously enough, she had been oper-
ated on for this complaint some eight
years before, when large tumor was
removed. Six months ago she received
fright through one Of her children
upsetting lighted lamp, and when
| she had somewhat recovered she be-
came convinced that a recurrence of
her trouble had begun and that the
only thing to save her life was an i'm
mediate operation
With the assistance of two of the Wis
iting surgeons determined to perform
the operation In Imagination, and this
Is how we did it: The patient was CIV
en- just sufficient quantity of anaes-
thetics to reduce her to a state Of semi
consciousness-she could hear and feel
vaguely, though she could see nothing.
We moved about the E0om quietly,
spoke in whispers gave hurried orders
to the nurses, etc, and, in fact, acted
Just as though we were engaged on the
biggest operation of our lives. Then
! one Of the assistants fetched a jug of
iced water and, holding it above the
supposed affected part, let the cold
fluid fall at the rate Of about one drop
every five seconds. When the water
touched her body the deluded patient
would vince and groan as though in
great agony.
After we had gone on In this way for
some time the woman was swathed in
bandages and conveyed by ambulance
to her room. On awakening she found
| two trained nurses creeping about the
apartment one of whom Immediately
held a cup Of beef tea to her lips and
asked her to try and swallow little.
After considerable effort she succeed
ed, confding to the nurse the fact that
she felt terribly weak and languid.
There she remained for ten days, after
which she was allowed to get up for
time and her friends were permitted to
see her. In three weeks she returned
home perfectly cured of her imaginary
tumor, and to this day she does not
know of the hoax which was played
upon her.
| Hysteria, of course, is the cause Of
most of these imaginary illnesses, and
when patient has 1t badly it is almost
as difficult to cure as insanity. We
had young girl here a year ago who
was suffering from most obstinate
attack Of hysteria which took very
curious form. She would never lie
down in her bed but invariably sat
bolt upright with her back against the
foot rail, constantly turning her head
from side to side like an automaton. 1
had watched her do this curious action
many times, and one day / asked her
why she continued it, to which she re-
piled that there was a string in her
head which pulled it from side to side
and that until it was cut she would
have no rest.
This remark gave me an idea, and
asked her If she would allow me to ex-
anime her head. She was perfectly
willing, and after an inspection lasting
twenty minutes 1 gravely announced
that she was quite right and that the
only cure was a slight operation in or
der to sever the string. She clapped
her hands with delight, like a child,
and declared that it was what she had
told several doctors, but that they had
all laughed at her Would 1 perform
the operation at once? I thought it bet
ter, however, to defer doing so until the
morning after l had consulted" the
visiting surgeons.
Having explained the circumstances,
the imaginary operation was agreed
upon, and the following morning the
young woman was led into the surgery,
placed upon the operating table and
anaesthetics administered. Part of her
luxuriant brown hair was cut off, and
portion of the back of the head,
about two inches above the nape of the
neck, was shaved smooth. Then, in or
der that there should be something to
show for the imaginary operation, the
scalp was lanced until the blood ran,
inches in length. This was bound, but
not strapped, and the patient was con-
veyed back to her bed, where she re-
manned for forty minutes before re-
turning to consciousness.
Meantime l had taken piece Of an
ordinary E violin string about four
inches long and soaked it in water until
it resembled raw sinew, the object Of
this, Of course being to show the pa
tient the actual string taken out of her
head
When she was restored to conscious
ness she was told how entirely success
ful the operation had been and shown
the string which had been the cause of
all her trouble, after which she fell in
to natural sleep and awoke perfectly
restored. From that day to this she
has never suffered from hysteria in any
form and has been completely cured Of
her hallucination regarding her inabili-
~ to keep her head from moving from
side to side.
Yes, 1t is wonderful how strong a
thing Imagination can become and how
easy it is to fool man Tor woman Ell
ther) into the belief that he has under
gone a serious operation for an imaRi-