On 16 October 1846 in Boston, the dentist William Morton gave ether to Gilbert Abbott so that the surgeon John Collins Warren could operate on a growth in his neck: the first public demonstration of surgical anaesthesia. Abbott moved and made sounds during the operation, and records differ on what he later said about pain.

Massachusetts General Hospital records; Henry Jacob Bigelow (1846)

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The operating theatre, under the dome of Massachusetts General Hospital's original building, is still called the Ether Dome and can be visited. Morton gave the ether through a glass inhaler of his own design. When the operation ended, Warren is remembered as telling the watching doctors, “Gentlemen, this is no humbug.” A report published that November by the surgeon Henry Jacob Bigelow and a note added later to Abbott's hospital record both describe his reaction, and they do not agree. A Georgia doctor, Crawford Long, had used ether in an operation in 1842 but did not publish until 1849, so it was the Boston demonstration that spread the news of anaesthesia around the world within months.

Türkçe oku

16 Ekim 1846'da Boston'da diş hekimi William Morton, Gilbert Abbott'a eter koklattı; cerrah John Collins Warren da Abbott'un boynundaki bir kitleyi ameliyat etti. Bu, cerrahi anestezinin ilk halka açık gösterisiydi. Abbott ameliyat sırasında kıpırdadı ve ses çıkardı; sonradan ağrı hakkında söyledikleri kayıtlarda farklı aktarılıyor.

Ameliyatın yapıldığı salon, Massachusetts General Hospital'ın ilk binasının kubbesi altındadır; bugün hâlâ Ether Dome (Eter Kubbesi) diye anılır ve gezilebilir. Morton eteri kendi tasarladığı camdan bir solutma aygıtıyla verdi. Anlatılana göre Warren, ameliyat bitince izleyen hekimlere dönüp “Beyler, bu bir kandırmaca değil” dedi. Cerrah Henry Jacob Bigelow'un aynı yılın kasım ayında yayımladığı rapor ve Abbott'un hastane kaydına sonradan eklenen not, hastanın tepkisini birbirinden farklı anlatıyor. Georgia'lı hekim Crawford Long eteri 1842'de bir ameliyatta kullanmıştı, ama bunu ancak 1849'da yayımladı. Bu yüzden anestezi haberini birkaç ay içinde bütün dünyaya yayan, Boston'daki bu gösteri oldu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Ether Dome

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