Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-07
PROGRESS IN SURGERY
SINCE GARF|ELD'SDEATH
Dr.. Baker Says That Modern
Methods Could Have Saved
the Presidents Life.

Declaring that it was not his object
'harshly to criticise'' the physicians who
attended President Garfield after the lat
ter was shot by Guiteau. DR.. Frank Baker.
superintendent of the National Geological
Park. in an address at the banquet of
the District Medical and Surgical Society,
last night discussed the case of the
nartyred executive.
He used an elaborate chart to explain
how Garfield's life could have been saved
by the application Of modern surgery.
1.-THE surgeons appear to have been de-
| ceived from the first regarding the direc-
ton from which the bullet came DIR.
Baker said. land to have held that it was
DETECTED downward after fracturing the
| eleventh rib burying itself in the muscles
of the back. Their bulletins seemed to
indicate a favorable prognosis.
1.-THE results of the autopsy are we'll
known. The track Of the bullet was
never recognized during life. 1t did not
wound the liver, but proceeded in the
opposite direction. shattered the first lum-
bar vertebra, and buried itself in the
subperitoneal tissue below the pancreas.
where 1t was found incrusted and ap-
parently harmless.
THE immediate cause Of death was
said to be the bursting Of a traumatic
ancurism OF the splentic artery.
Public Indignation.
"Some of you remember the storm OF
public Indignation against the medical
profession that swept over the country.
Though every care known to the medical
science Of the time had been taken OF
the distinguished suffer. it was yet al
legged that his life could have been saved.
The faulty diagnosis and the misleading
of the public by false hopes were harshly
criticised. Failure in this case was very
much greater in its effect on the public
than 1t would have been in. the case of
an ordinary citizen. 1t was serious
! disaster to the profession. The first
thing that a modern surgeon would do
when called to a case like this would be
to ascertain with accuracy the direction
the bullet proceeded"
Lack Of Precautions.
Continuing, DR.. Baker said that first
aid aseptic treatment was conspicuously
absent in Garfield's case.
1T does not appear that in the first
examination Of the wound at the depot
any aseptic precautions were taken,' he
! added. Indeed, it is doubtful it aseptic
| or antisepsis was attempted during the
entire day of the shooting.
Several medical men who observed the
probing at the railway station have as
sured me that they thought it injud1-
cious. some declaring that it caused the
pus sinus that afterward developed Sew
eral Of the large staff OF surgeons in at
tendance examined the wound, probably
without disinfecting their hands. The
surgeons even of that day ought to have
been aware Of the grave danger of in
lection
DR.. Baker in closing called attention
to the fact that similar wounds inflicted
in the Russo-Japanese war had not
proved fatal.
In the discussion Of DIR. Bakers paper
DR.. L. II. Reichelderfer and others con-
tended that the gravity Of President
Garfield wound offered but little hope
of recovery, even had he been treated
with all the care of the present day
methods.
| 1t was also pointed out that the use of
| the X-ray would have enabled the sur
geons to locate the bullet without diff
Guilty: