Chloroformed Sixty Hours-Elsie Campbell 1904

CAMPBELL

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 2/20/2017 at 14:03:28

Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, Jan. 4, 1904

Chloroformed Sixty Hours
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Clinton, Ia. Jan. 4 – Sixty hours under the influence of an anesthetic while physicians were removing strips of skin from her body and grafting it onto a large wound, is the trying experience that Elsie Campbell, aged 7 years, the little daughter of Harry P. Campbell, a druggist of this city, has just passed through.

Three months ago while watching a bonfire, sparks ignited the clothing of the little girl and she was severely burned. There was a wound several inches in diameter on her back which would not heal and the physicians finally decided to graft skin into the flesh in the hopes that the ugly gap would be closed. Little patches of skin were removed from different parts of her body and were grafted into the wound, not in the form of a solid mass but according to the “island” plan of skin grafting.

At the time of the operation the child was in serious condition and it was necessary to allow her to regain consciousness after each patch of skin had been removed and grafted into the wound. The operation seemed to be a decided success and the little girl was hostess at a party given a day or two ago to several of her young school mates.