Evening star., 1948-12-31
|SurgeryStudy
Ga||inger
And Glenn Dale
DR.. Edgar Davis Ends
Inquiry in Operation
Error at 5 Sunutorium

A complete report on operating
room conditions at both Glenn
Dale Sanatorium and Gallinger
Hospital will be submitted to the
District Health Department by a
prominent surgeon brought in to
investigate Tuesdays mistake
operation at the sanatorium.
This was disclosed today by DR..
Edgar w. Davis, professor of tho
racic surgery at Georgetown Uni
versity Medical School and chief of
chest surgery at Georgetown, Gal
linger, Children's and Garfield Hos
pials. DR.. Davis completed his in
vestigation of the Glenn Dale
operation late yesterday and was to
submit it to Health Officer George
c. Rutland before noon today.
DR.. Davis said he was not spe.
cifically asked to report on condi.
tions at Gallinger by DR.. Rhuland,
but added that he feels the two
institutions-both operated by the
District Government-are so closely
interrelated that a report on one
must necessarily involve the other.
Prompted by Surgery Error.
His investigation was prompted
by an operation, performed Tuesday
by DR.. Frank Ashburn, visiting con-
Sultant, in which two ribs were re-
moved from the wrong side of a
tubercular woman's chest. Planning
to collapse the woman's diseased left
lung. DR.. Ashburn operated on the
right size of her chest. He acted fol-
lowing an error in the operative
schedule made out by DR.. James S.
Conant, Glenn Dale chief of surgery,
although an X-ray of the patients
chest was in he room at the time
DR.. Davis said the woman's condi-
ton was fairly satisfactory" today.
Meanwhile, a report on the Glenn
Dale case was received on Capitol
Hill by Chairman Miller of the sub
committee on health, education and
welfare of the House District Com
mittee
DR.. Miller said the report was a
copy of the one made by Dr.. Ruh-
land to the Commissioners on the
affair.
Circumstances Outlined.
The report outlined in detail nine
circumstances surrounding the error,
DR.. Miller. who is a physician, said.
At present, the matter is some
thing for the Commissioners and
Dr. Rutland to handle" DR.. Miller
declared.
They can't undo the damage" he
said. 1T probably was caused by not
enough attention to details in the
case.
Unfortunately, this kind of thing
sometimes happens when insufficient
attention is devoted to charity-type
cases." he said.
DR.. Miller said he would wait for
a more complete report from the
Commissioners before deciding
whether he will recommend that a
subcommittee in the new Congress
look further into the situation.
Davis Praises Surgeon.
Taking for granted that an er-
ror was made in the operation" DR..
Davis said today, those fellows
have done beautiful piece of post
operative care and brought the pa
lent along very nicely"
The investigator said his report
to DR.. Rutland on the case lis fac
tual and without regard to my per-
sonal feelings" He said he had
gone into every angle of the case.
1T was the sort of thing that can
not happen, but did," DR.. Davis
concluded.
He said he gave DR.. Rutland o
three-hour verbal report on his find
ings last night and would complete
it at their scheduled meeting today.
His information on floor plan,
operating conditions and admins
tration of surgery at Gallinger and
Glen Dale would be presented to DR..
Rutland at later date. Most of
the data on Gallinger is in the back
of my mind" Dr. Davis said. He
has been connected with the Call
niger surgery for about eight years,
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