Show FLOYD GIBBONS I 1 A Y 1 adventurers club J under and over the knife by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter if they would could tell many grini grim stories of super chuman human battles with death that take place behind the white doors of the operating ope ratin 6 room but these stories seldom seep through the an ti Septic eppic masks they wear at their heroic work it would seem that these he masks s also sen ed as prof professional ess ional gags to bind their wearers bearers to It tac crecy story of it near liere we have live a tragedy in an operating room that throbs calon it conic come from the doctor with dramatic 11 or the nurse but from a little ite girl airl whose father Is a surgeon and whose mother is ills his trained nurse gaie smith eSmith is tile the young ladys name in the summer of 1929 pences father had aad a private hospital in the basement of his home the operating room of this hospital faced a narrow alley which separated it from arother another house one day frences Fien ces father had a delicate major operation to perform the patient was as wheeled vilee led into the spotless white room an assistant doctor adrela lilt ered the anes anesthetic the day was stilling liot hot and the fumes or of the ether grated the atmosphere bences mother handed instruments to lier her surgeon ausband lioa band and soon the operation was under tinder way fire with a delicate operation at hand tile the surgeon was absorbed in ills his work the assistant doctor busy watching ua w patients reaction react lou to the ether but denees Iten ces mother began to notice that the leat hat in tile the operating root room was terrific alarmed she went to the window and ljube u she did one of tile the windows cracked she looked out and nearly screamed the building across the way was on fire workmen busily heating tar for the roof they were repairing had let the fire under the huge tar kettle set get out of control and the heat from the fire had cracked the window the situation was desperate for this reason ether is even more than gasoline the ether fumes in the oper jung room were as thick as the gas fumes in the carburetor of an automobile one oile spark and tilt the room and all in it would be blown to bits the horror was too much for this nurse to give you au at idea how inflammable ether really is I 1 remember before le he days of electric starters when we poured a few drops of ether 1 into into sparkling openings of the old time cars to start them in cold weather denees mother was a doctors 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 thought of the catastrophe which was about to annihilate her little family she fell to the floor in a faint at a nod from the surgeon tile assistant doctor carried tier her to fo the other room where redee played and left her to recover in the fresher air it Is not uncommon common for people to faint from the fumes of ether and the two doctors went ent on OD with their work unconscious for a moment of their dan danger er A doctors duty Is toward his patient soon boon however the smoke drifting by the windows told the doctors the true they elchan ed glances each knowing what was in the others mini milli doctor smith never hesitated ills his duty was to his patient and without a glance 4 stricken with horror she fell in a faint out bt the window he went on with the operation the assistant doctor took his place at the patients head and the two doctors worked on as though aare cre wr wrong ng they both knew how highly explosive ether fumes are smoking Is always forbidden around ether and they must have known that tiny any second billib gilt ailt be their last over the snipping of the surgical instruments they could lear far the crackle of tile the flames and the cries of the men trying to control them half an hour went by the doctors sweated under their white robes but doctor smiths practical hands never faltered he might have moved the patient but exposure to a non septic room might mean can fatal infection like the captain of a sinking ship he stayed at his h post until the last stitch in the incision had been taken althe As the operation ended the tire lire got under control the patient was wheeled it t ot of the but two new operating room and was soon on oil tile the way to recovery patients were added thit day to tile the hospital register doctor smith aith and ills his wife father and mother lay side by side in wal cots for dabs before they recovered from the shock and B renee benee know what it was in well kance irence was so young she even all about until she grew up service |