Show A FLOYD G 4 i 4 n tu re rs' rs cl Club M Under and Over the Knife nife By FLOYD FLOD GIBBONS Famous H Headline adline Hunter D DOCTORS T if they would could tell many grim grins stories ol ot olL L' L super-human super battles with death that mt take place behind the white doors of the operating room but these stories seldom seep through the antiseptic masks they wear at at their heroic work It would seem that these masks also served as professional gags to bind their wearers to secrecy Here we have ha n a story of n a near tragedy In nn an operation room that throbs with dramatic action It didn't come from the doctor or the nurse but from a 11 little girl Irl whose father Is a II surgeon and w whose hoe lOse mother Is his trained nurse Smith Is the young oun la ladys lady's ys y's name In the summer of 1929 Rence's father had a private hospital In the basement of his home The operating room of this hospital faced a narrow alley which It from another house One day Renee's father had n a delicate major operation to perform The patient was wheeled Into the spotless white room An n assistant doctor doc doc- doctor octor oc- oc tor administered the anesthetic The day was stifling hot and the fumes of the ether saturated the atmosphere Renee's mother handed Instruments ments meats to her sur surgeon husband and soon the operation was under way Fire With Fire With With a Delicate Operation at Hand The surgeon was absorbed In his work the assistant doctor busy bugy watching his patients patient's reaction to the ether but Renee's mother began an to notice that the heat hent In the operating room was terrific Alarmed she went to the window and as she did one of ot the windows cracked She looked out and nearly screamed The building across the way way was on fire Workmen busily heating tar for the roof they were repairing had let the fire under under un un- der the huge tar kettle get out of control and the heat from the fire had cracked the window The situation was desperate for this reason Ether Is even en more Inflammable than gasoline The eth ether r fumes In Inthe Inthe inthe the operating room were as ns thick as ns the gus gas fumes In the carburetor of or oran an automobile One spark sparl and the room and all In It would be blown to bits The Horror Harrot Was Too Much for This Nurse To give gl you an Idea how Inflammable ether really Is I remember remember- before the days of electric starters when starters we e poured a n few drops of ether Into sparkplug openings of the old time cars to start them In cold weather Renee's mot mother er was a doctors doctor's wife and knew all this She took one look at the workmen fighting like madmen to put out the flames and then stricken with horror at the thought of the catastrophe catastrophe catas which was about to annihilate her little family she fell to to the the floor in a faint At a nod from the surgeon the tile assistant doctor octor carried her to the theother theother theother other room where Renee pla played ed and antl left her to recover reco In the fresher N r Stricken With Horror She Fell in a Faint air It Is not uncommon for people to faint from the fumes of ether and the two tw doctors went on with their work worl unconscious for a moment of ot their danger A Doctors Doctor's Duty Is Toward His Patient Soon however er the smoke drifting by the windows told the doctors the true situation They hey exchanged glances each knowing knowIng h what t was In Inthe Inthe inthe the others other's mind Doctor Smith never hesitated Ills His dut duty was to his patient and antl without a glance out the window he went on with the opera era tion The assistant doctor octor took his place at nt the patients patient's head and anti the two taro doctors worked on as though nothing were wrong They both hoth knew knewbow how bow highly explosive ether fumes arc smoking are smoking Is alwa always s 's forbidden around ether ether and and thc they must have known that any second might be their la last r. r Over the sn snipping of the surgical Instruments t they could I hear ar the crackle of the flames hull the cries of the men tr trying to control them Half an hour went by The doctors sweated under their white robes but Doctor Smiths Smith's practical hands never faltered He might have moved the patient but exposure to a septic non-septic room might mean fatal Infection Like the captain of a sinking ship he stayed at his post until the last stitch In the Incision had been been taken As the operation ended the fIre flie got under control The patient was wheeled out of or the operating room and antl was soon on the way to recovery But ut two new patients were nd added ed that day to the hospital register Doctor Smith and his wife wife wife-Hence's Renee's father and mother lay mother lay side by side In hospital cots for days das before they recovered from the shock And Antl Renee Well We Hence was so young joung she didn't even ell know what It It was all aU about until she grew up tD S |