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The Surgery in President McKinley’s Case
PURSUANT to the request of the editor of the J
I herewith furnish such data as came within my knowledge in connection
with the recent operation upon President McKinley, on September
6, 1901, at the Pan-American Hospital.
The President was shot about ten minutes
after four o’clock, and various surgeons were summoned to the spot,
I, myself, among the number. On my arrival at the hospital I found
Doctors Mann, Mynter, Wasdin and Lee, the latter of St. Louis. I
am informed that a consultation had been held, at which it was decided
that the President should receive the same general line of treatment
which would be indicated and carried out in the case of a person
of much less exalted position. In other words, the personality of
the patient was not to weigh in the scientific treatment of his
case. I was invited by Dr. Mann to participate in the operation,
which began as nearly as I can recollect about twenty minutes after
five o’clock.
The wounds sustained by the President,
as is already known, consisted, first, of an abrasion caused by
a glancing ball located near the middle of the sternum and a little
to the right. The second bullet entered the abdominal wall, some
five or six inches below the left nipple and about two inches to
the left of the median line. These figures are approximate but cannot
vary much from the exact locations of the external wounds.
An incision was made by Dr. Mann in
the long axis of the body some four or five inches in length, the
incision dividing the [205][206] point
of entrance of the bullet. On section of the muscles of the abdominal
wall it was ascertained that a penetration of the abdominal cavity
had occurred. The incision was then lengthened and an examination
made of the viscera, when it was revealed that a bullet had entered
the stomach an inch or more above the greater curvature, and probably
about the middle of the long axis of that viscus. The wound of entrance
showed somewhat ragged edges, and through the opening escaped considerable
gas from the stomach, as well as a very small quantity of the stomach
contents which was quickly caught up by compresses. This wound was
carefully sutured by Dr. Mann. The stomach was then drawn further
out of the cavity, Dr. Mann reaching underneath the omentum to get
at its posterior wall, where a wound corresponding to that in the
anterior wall was found. This was somewhat larger and apparently
more ragged than the first one described. It also was carefully
sutured. Further search failed to reveal any other lesion in the
abdominal cavity or any trace of the bullet. The operation had then
lasted somewhat over an hour, and it was deemed inadvisable to prolong
the search for the bullet, the belief being that it had passed into
the muscles of the back and would there become encysted.
The abdominal cavity was thoroughly
irrigated with salt solution two or three times during the operation.
The abdominal wound next was sutured, silkworm-gut being used for
the retaining sutures, these penetrating all the layers of the abdomen,
after which antiseptic dressings were applied.
At the conclusion of the operation
the President’s pulse was 130, and of fairly good quality. He took
the anesthetic throughout the operation without any unpleasant symptoms,
due, undoubtedly in large part, to its skilful administration by
Dr. Wasdin. Within half an hour the President was transferred in
the ambulance to the home of Mr. Milburn.
As my experience with the case and
relation to it ended with the President’s removal from the hospital,
I can give no further data.
RANKLIN
TREET.
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