The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-12-29
IN PERIL BY ST0VA|NE
TWO PATIENTS TREATED n,
DIR. JONNESCO NEAR
LY DIE.

New York, Dec. 29.-That two pa
tlents in whom DR.. Thomas Jonnes-
co, the famous Roumanian surgeon,
had injected his stovaine were saved
from death only after heroic work ::
that one patient did die under the
operation of an imitator, and that an
other became partly paralyzed, was
the statement made by well-known
surgeons today, as the result of the
Rounlanians visit to the United
States. Surgeons in neither New
York nor Philadelphia wholly in
dorse the methods of Prof. Jonnesco.
which SO aroused doctors of England
an dthe continent. While they tell of
serious surgical operations without
pain, they have doubts about the
value of the anaethetic.
DR.. Virgil P. Gibney. who perform
ed operations at the Hospital for the
Relief Of the Crippled and Ruptured,
says that he would hesitate a long
while" before permitting an injection
of stovaine into his spinal cord. DR..
Aspinwall Judd, who assisted in op-
erations at the New York Post
Graduate hospital, had this to say at
the conclusion of his repOrt of four
cases:
Administered in the upper portion
of the spinal cord, if we can draw
conclusions from one case mention
ed. its dangers far exceed those of
the older methods"
Opposed by Medical Journal.
These statements have been COL
lected by the New York Medical
journal in articles written by DR..
Gibney, DIR. Judd and DIR. Edward
Martin of Philadelphia. The Journal
itself, high authority in medicine,
takes strong position against the
use of stovaine as administered by
the noted Roumanian surgeon.
I'VE have now no hesitation,'
writes the editor after study of the
reports sent to him, lin saying that it
would be injudicious to substitute
spinal anesthetization for the COM
moner methods of securing general
anesthesia-that is to say, in the gen.
erality Of cases."
The first work of DR.. JannescO was
at the Hospital for the Crippled and
Ruptured, where DR.. Jannesco SEEM
ed to have accomplished just what he
had claimed to do-anesthetizati
sufficient to prevent pain, without
unconsciousness or effect on the
heart. DR.. Gibney SO reported in his
official account of the demonstration
Sees q Grave Danger.
Personally, however," he added, Il
should hesitate a long while before
1 allowed any high injection or any
solution into my spinal cord. The
vascular supply within the spinal
cord is too rich, and the danger of
henlorrhage induced thereby suf1ci-
emily great to make me prefer local
anesthesia or anesthesia through the
respiratory tract"
It was at the professors second
demonstration, that at the Post
Graduate hospital-on which DR..
Judd makes his report-that one pa
tient was placed in danger. The doc
tor, in his account, shows how des-
perately the surgeons had to work to
save the patient after the operation:
Case III.-Man. 10 years of age,
Italian, of normal intelligence. ex-
citable. Operation for osteoma Of the
forehead of about the size of large
cherry, involving table of skull
Previous history: Chorea as child,
also epilepsy. Operation lasted
twelve minutes. Patient experienced
severe shock, followed by respiratory
failure and absolute collapse. Arti-