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Season’s Greetings
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VOLUME 21, NUMBER 47
DECEMBER 20,1974
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
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Naida Celebrates Yule
Despite All Predictions
s; &
MOTHER AND CHILD—Mrs. David A.F. Cole and long-awaited Naida Margret.
Dr. Osterhout Lauds Safety Caps ‘When Used’
By Margaret Howell
The birth announcement they send
out should read something like this;
Mr. and Mrs. David A.F. Cole
Drs. Pupkin and MacKenna
Crenshaw and Brumley
and
a staff of hundreds
ecstatically announce
the birth of
Naida Margret Cole
October 28,1974
Impressive isn t it? Quite, but not
nearly as impressive as the nine months
in bed and eight previous unsuccessful
pregnancies it took to get the young
lady here.
For about 15 years Cynthia Cole tried
in vain to enlarge her family.
Finally, after a stream of miscarriages
and non-surviving premature births that
would discourage less adamant
women, she and her husband David, a
former Duke anesthesiologist, are able
to “talk baby now that they can "sfee
baby.'
Mrs. Cole places most of the credit
with her doctors for getting Naida here
with "lOfingersand lOtoes.
As she left the hospital just a few
weeks ago for the first time in almost
nine months. Cynthia Cole was ready to
try it again as long as she could have
the same doctors...so she asked them if
they d help again one day...and they
said yes, resoundingly.
Mr. Cole is just as excited about the
quiet, sleep-loving Naida as her mother.
As one of the doctors. Dr. Jarlath
MacKenna put it; I can imagine David
scurrying around in the grocery store.
That s a r.ight I d like to see—David
buying baby food. '
David A.F. Cole came to Duke two
years ago to open a department of
obstetrical anesthesiology, but is now
working at a Canadian hospital in
Toronto. He was here, however, helping
with the birth when the time came.
Naida Margret was born by Caesarian
section, like Mrs. Coles first baby 16
years ago. Teenage son Allister has
been in school in Canada and, by now,
is getting reacquainted with his mother
and meeting his new sister.
Five-and-a-half weeks premature, but
healthy. Naida Margret came. With her.
she brought an end to nine months of
unspoken fears. "If it had not been for
Dr. (Marcos) Pupkin, I don't think I
would have made it even if I was at
Duke, " Cynthia Cole said, quietly.
"I needed a doctor who would fight
for me if I was willing to fight. A
Canadian doctor had already told me
that I should stop trying and adopt. But
that wouldn t have been the same to
me. Dr. Pupkin was great. He came to
see me very often and he called me at
(Continued on page 8}
Expert Speaks Out on Poisoning Accidents
By David Williamson
Two-year-old Michael James of New
Brunswick. N.C.. had always been a
normal, active youngster.
Unfortunately, a few weeks back his
explorations and curiosity almost cost
him his life.
While his mother worked in her
bedroom, Michael was examining the
contents of the cabinet beneath the
kitchen sink. His aunt, absorbed in a
television program, was also in the
kitchen.
A bright pink plastic bottle with an
equally bright yellow cap caught the
little boy s eye. Unscrewing the cap. he
did what naturally occurs to children his
age—he tasted the stuff.
The bottle contained a common
household drain opener, a large
percentage of which is lye. one of the
most destructive poisons commonly
available in the supermarket.
The lye began burning into the
tissues of Michael s mouth and throat,
combining with the fatty tissues and
cells lining his esophagus to form a
kind of hideous soap. He screamed and
ran from the kitchen to his mother.
His mother and aunt read the label of
the container and administered vinegar
and milk, the prescribed antidote. Then
they rushed the child to a hospital.
Physicians in attendance at the
hospital contacted the Poison Control
Center at the medical center, and
Michael was brought here.
Although two months will pass before
his doctors can tell if his throat will heal
properly, indications are that Michael
will be all right.
Not so lucky, however, was another
little boy of the same age. Left alone in
his grandmother s house, he swallowed
a number of Quinidex tablets,
prescribed to control irregular
heartbeats in adults.
Although he was made to vomit at
home and physicians pumped his
stomach at a nearby hospital, he died
three hours after arriving at Dukes
Poison Control Center. Despite
vigorous resuscitation efforts, he never
regained consciousness.
These kinds of tragedies are almost
100 per cent avoidable, said Dr. Shirley
Osterhout, a pediatrician and clinical
director of the center which treats or
gives medical advice on over 200
poisonings each month.
They are caused by carelessness,
poor packaging of dangerous materials
and by what often amounts to criminal
neglect." she said.
And the Poison Control Center, in
existence since 1954, has seen literally
thousands of such accidents, many of
which have resulted in death for their
victims.
(Continued on page 2)
UNHAPPY YOUNG MAN—Michael James of New Brunswick, N.C., reflects the pain
of a very sore throat despite comforting from Howland Ward LPN Judy Evans. The
lad IS lucky to be alive, however, after having swallowed a caustic drain opener
containing lye. The Duke Control Center is still carrying on its fight against
acciden{al poisonings. (Photo by David Williamson)