Babies

Neither the deathly plight of a Houston baby with water on the brain, nor a speedy flight by Air-Champion James R. Wedell, nor an operation by Johns Hopkins' Brain Surgeon Walter Edward Dandy is in itself important news. But the combination of all three last week on the front page of the nation's Press gave the country a stirring drama of death defeated by human effort.

Jimmy Wedell was hunting ducks at his grandmother's home 60 mi. from Houston, when a telephone call sent him flying to Houston. There Sue Trammell, 5-months-old daughter of ex-President Wash Bryan Trammell of Houston Natural Gas Co., lay ill with hydrocephalus. The Trammells' other child had died of the same condition a few months before. Mrs. Trammell was frantic when doctors told her that the man who could save Sue's life was Dr. Dandy in Baltimore 1,400 mi. away. Would Mr. Wedell fly Sue & family to Dr. Dandy?

Prince Louis Ferdinand, son of the one-time German Crown Prince, was the sole passenger in a big red monoplane which Jimmy Wedell flies commercially between San Antonio and New Orleans. He willingly gave his seat to the Trammells.

It was summer weather at Houston that afternoon. The night brought winter winds which pitched and tossed the plane. Mrs. Trammell and a nurse took turns holding the baby. At one refueling stop Jimmy Wedell borrowed an overcoat. At 1:57 a. m., 11 hr. after leaving Houston, the plane landed on Baltimore's snow-encrusted airport. An ambulance sped the Trammells to Johns Hopkins where Dr. Dandy's associate, Dr. Paul A. Kunkel, confirmed the Houston diagnosis of hydrocephalus.

Next day the pressure of the Press drew a statement from Dr. Dandy, who, like every reputable physician, hates to have his private practice dragged out into the limelight. Said Dr. Dandy: "The condition is dangerous and not uncommon, but is not necessarily immediately fatal. There is a continual flow of spinal fluid into the brain cavity, and hydrocephalus is caused when there is an obstruction, bringing about a backing up of the fluid in the brain cavity. We will have to operate to form a by-pass to allow resumption of the free flow of the fluid. Such an operation is dangerous, of course, but the disease is fatal in only about 25% of the cases."

Although Mrs. Dandy at the time was in Johns Hopkins Hospital seriously ill with scarlet fever, her husband was ready to go ahead with an operation on the Trammell infant. After a 54-hr. study of the case Dr. Dandy began the operation, which lasted two hours, through the side of the child's head. He found that he need not construct a by-pass for the cerebro-spinal fluid. Sufficient was removal of an obstruction between the lateral ventricles, cavities of the brain which lie in the region of the temples. His report to the public: "The baby came out of the ether all right, and is taking her feeding nicely. The operation may be termed successful."

Elsewhere in the nation last week, other parents and other babies made other news:

P: The Helena, Mont, long distance operator called Dr. David T. Berg to the telephone. "Lincoln is calling." Dr. Berg waited. "These is Pete Clausen talking. My wife is having a baby. . . ." Lincoln was 55 mi. away over snowed-under roads. Outdoors was -20DEG. Dr. Berg bundled himself well, started to motor to the case. Thirty miles out of Helena 6-ft. snow drifts blocked his car. He secured a tractor, arrived at the accouchement with 15 minutes to spare.

P: After a New Hampshire snowfall of 20 in. and in a 60 m.p.h. gale the only way for Beatrice Coots, district nurse, to reach & aid in the confinement of Mrs. Milton Ames, on Ossipee Mountain, was by an eleven-dog sled which Mr. & Mrs. John Milton Seeley, owners of kennels at Wonalancet, N. H. organized and drove.

P: In Buffalo a "healthy and perfectly normal baby" girl was cut from her mother's womb 30 minutes after the mother, a Mrs. Anthony di Pasquale, had died of childbirth convulsions.

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