Anesthetic Powers?: Whiskey for Neonatal Surgery in 1934 Kansas City

On Friday, May 11, 1934, in Kansas City, Missouri, Mrs. Clara Powers (right) reluctantly permitted emergency surgery on her dehydrated baby boy. Sixteen-day-old Harold William Powers (left) had a palpable mass obstructing the passage of fluids through his stomach. After placing a small bag of sugar in the baby ’s mouth, an intern “dropped whisky on the sugar [bag] until the child fell into a stupor.” The surgeon’s local anesthetic supplemented the intern’s whiskey one, and a successful pyloromyotomy was performed. The Monday after the surgery, news headlines nationwide read mistakenly, “Whisky and Sugar Given Baby as Anesthetic for Operation.” (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
Source: Anesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research