Fatal haemoptysis in a child aged 4 years / by J.D. Rolleston and J.E. Robertson-Ross.

  • Rolleston, John Davy, 1873-1946.
Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Fatal haemoptysis in a child aged 4 years / by J.D. Rolleston and J.E. Robertson-Ross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Reprinted from ‘ The British Journal of Children’s Diseases,’ Vol. XI, PP- 407-409. September, 1914, fatal haemoptysis in a child aged 4 years* By J. D. Rolleston, M.D., and J. E. Robertson-Ross, L.M.S.S.A., Assistant Medical Officers, Grove Fever Hospital, London. A boy, aged 4 years, was admitted to the Grove Fever Hospital on February the 19th, 1914, certified to be suffering from whooping cough. Measles, in December, 1912, was stated to be the only previous illness, but since November, 1913, lie had appeared generally unwell and subject to attacks of abdominal pain and vomiting. Condition on admission : The child was in a very ill-nourished and wasted state. The cough was paroxysmal, but at no time dining his stay in hospital was he heard to whoop. 1th on chi and rales could be heard all over both lungs, but no areas of dulness could be marked out. The abdomen was distended and the superficial abdominal veins were dilated. The spleen could be palpated below the level of the costal margin and the area of liver dulness was slightly increased downwards. No enlargement of the lymphatic glands was detected. The temperature rose nightly to between 102 and 103°, but fell to nearly normal in the morning. The pulse-rate was rarely below 120 and the respiration varied 30 and 50. On March the 15th a specimen of sputum was with difficulty obtained from the mouth, but no tubercle bacilli were seen. Yon Pirquet’s reaction, performed on April the 3rd, was also negative, a fact which is of interest in view of the subsequent post-mortem findings. (A positive reaction, however, was found in the patient’s sister, aged 2 years, who was admitted on the same day with the certificate of whooping cough, and died on May the 21st of tuber- culous meningitis—a terminal episode of what was probably a generalised infection. An autopsy could not be obtained, but three * A paper read at tlie Section for the Study of Disease in Children of the Royal Society of Medicine, on May the 22nd, 1914.