Plastic Surgery

Sadie Holland, a stenographer and 30, had bow legs and a burn-scarred shoulder.

Last week she had a painful shoulder, no legs at all and was reported dying from "plastic" operations performed for $800 at the Chicago Osteopathic Hospital by Doctors Henry Junius Schireson and S. D.

Zaph.

Dr. Schireson, whom the American Medical Association has ostracized for years but whom it could not prevent practicing in Illinois, has straightened Actress Fanny Brice's nose, removed fat from "Peaches" Browning's legs, and sued Lady Diana Manners for payment of work on her face. One of his publicity men once sued him for $50,000 for services rendered and he was in jail for more than one term, according to records of the American Medical Association.

Persuaded by his skilled publicity, Sadie Holland went to Dr. Schireson for removal of her shoulder scar. He suggested that he could also straighten her legs for the $800. She consented. While he cut at the scar, Dr. Zaph (he says) worked thus: "The flesh [of a leg] was bared to the bone; an electric saw was used to cut wedges from the main leg bone, or tibia, and then the wound was sewed up. The limb was then placed in a cast and then left to straighten itself out as the wedge closed together." He added: "W'hen the patient left the operating table her condition was good." But gangrene set in, because (he says) the woman was removed from the Osteopathic Hospital; because (say her relatives) Dr. Schireson bungled a needless operation. Other surgeons were obliged to amputate her legs above the knee in an effort to save her life. The Journal of the American Medical Association, of which Dr. Morris Fishbein is aggressive editor, last week called Henry Junius Schireson "Schireson--the Disgrace of Illinois."