The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-11-05

~ ABLY MAC ASBlDL, six months old,
- swallowed a safety pin at six o'clock
in the morning at the Asbill homo
in Atlanta, Ga.
At nine o'clock X-ray photograph.
showed the pin in the baby's stomach,
OPEN, so that the sharp point stuck up
toward the throat
Twelve hours later DR.. j. H. Buff closed
the pin WHILE IT WAS STILL IN THE
through the throat and mouth.
Not a drop of blood was shed. The
baby's skin wasn't pricked The child
Is perfectly well to-day. Yet until DR..
Buff appeared. other physicians had do
SPARED of saving Baby Macs life.
How did DR.. Buff perform the magic
operation? How did he close the pin
inside the baby Without cutting open the
baby? Did he use instruments so tech
nical they defy ordinary description?
Not at all. DR.. Buff used tiny pair
OF pincers, two wire loops on the end Of
two long wires, and an electroscope,
which is nothing but small electric bulb
on the end of a wire.
That was all. But his feat is consid-
cred remarkable by the medical world
Exactly how he accomplished it is told on
this page.
Babies have swallowed safety pins be-
fore. They have swallowed many things.
Cases are known of swallowed needles,
pins, cuff buttons, thumb tacks, pennies
and even iron jackstones;, Sometimes
and painlessly. Sometimes the baby dies.
But, except for the case Of Baby Mac
Asbill. there is said to be no other case
of a child swallowing an open safety pin
or safety pin that came open in the
stomach--and the pin being then re-
moved.
Mrs; ,Asbill, the mothee Of Baby Mac.
doesn't know how he came to swallow the
pin. 1t is considered almost as remark
able for the childto get the open pin into
his stomach as for the doctor TO get it
Sut.
Mrs. Asbill had given the baby
milk from bottle at six o'clock
and put him back to bed IN his q
cradle. With a safety pin she n
fastened the bed covering about ~
him. Then she left the room. u
Fifteen minutes later Mrs. Asbili
heard the baby scream. She ran to
him and picked him up. The baby
stopped crying. But when Mrs AS
bill stopped TO rearrange the bed
ding she found the safety. pin was
gone. She searched the cradle
She searched the floor. She
searched all over the room The
safety pin had absolutely disap-
peared.
Mrs. Asblll, her heart beating fast,
swallowed the pin? Was it in him nowf
1t didn't seem possible For he no longer
cried. He crowed. He appeared chubby,
happy and healthy. Yet-the baby had
screamed; and-the pin was gone.
Mrs. Asbill telephoned her family ply
sician. When he called, he advised an
X-ray examination. That, he said, is the
first and best thing to do when babies cry
without apparent cause, because babies
swallow so many things. They are almost
Ike young ostriches.
The X-ray pictures were made. And,
sure enough, the photograph showed the
missing safety pin in Baby Macs stomach.
But, to the alarm of the
doctor, the pin was open!
The picture showed it had
lodged Just beyond the point
where the throat starts up
ward from the stomach. The {
butt-end of the safety pin
pointed down, the safety
catch and the sharp point,
released from the catch,
pointed up.
Specialists held consul
tation. If they tried to pull
out the open pin through y. Y
the throat, they would tear
the lining OF the stomach be- ~
fore they had moved 1t the II
sixteenth of an inch. If II
they performed surgical
operation, they would have NJ
to cut through the ribs and W
possibly, the lungs, This 10y
probably would be fatal to ~46
six months old child. (N
The specialists were baf- VI
fled. They decided the best w
thing to do would be 10 do
nothing At least, for a
while They hoped the pin
might pass through the
stomach naturally without
any injury.
Baby Mac was sent home.
He appeared the least wor- Il
ried of anybody. All the II
morning he laughed and "
curled his toes when he "
wasn't asleep. Mrs, Asbill ~
stayed at his side She
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