Doctors succumb to blood poisoning in early 1900s

Dr. Alanson Decatur Rose of Manton stood beside his mother’s burial place a few days after her March 8,1909 death. His mother had run the luxurious Woonsocket House Hotel on Block Island for 40 years and he enjoyed the high-class lifestyle it provided to him prior to achieving his own success.

In the middle of Nov. 1909, Dr. Rose accidentally cut his finger while performing an operation. As soon as it became evident that the wound was infected, he began treatment. Initially, the treatment appeared to be working but then the infection intensified and approximately four weeks after the accidental laceration, blood poisoning set in.

Several physicians were consulted to determine the next course of action. However, all seemed to agree that recovery wasn’t likely. If Dr. Rose succumbed, he would be the third physician in Rhode Island to die of a wound sustained during surgery within just a few weeks. 

Dr. Frank Bradford Sprague , an ear, nose and throat doctor from Providence, had recently sliced open one of his fingers while performing an operation on a patient’s middle ear. He noticed on Oct. 26, 1909 that a painful infection had developed in the finger. As the pain grew worse, Sprague became desperately ill. Again, it was blood poisoning. The 44-year-old died at his home on Stewart Street on Nov. 17.

Eleven days later, Dr. Donald Churchill of Providence died. An 1893 Harvard University graduate and an 1898 Harvard Medical School graduate, Churchill began his career in Rhode Island as an intern at the state hospital. He later became assistant superintendent and in 1905, was made a surgeon at the facility. On Nov. 8, he was asked by a fellow doctor to perform a simple operation on a wound the other doctor had incurred. Churchill accidentally cut his own finger while performing the surgery. In less than two weeks, blood poisoning was evident. The 39-year-old died on Nov. 28 at his home on Broad Street.

As Dr. Rose lay dying, much medical talk centered on the fact that it had been their work on “charity patients” which had brought about the demise of the doctors – insinuating that those who couldn’t pay for their own medical care were unclean and unsafe. However, Churchill’s patient had been a wealthy member of his own circle.

Miraculously, Dr. Rose survived. He spent many more years attending to the needs of the sick and wounded. He finally succumbed to cardiac issues in 1946 when he was 81 years old. A monument for him stands in Pocasset Cemetery in Cranston.  

While surgical gloves were a necessity in 1909, they could accidentally be cut through, just as they sometimes are today. Presently, surgeons usually wear a double set of sterile gloves which are replaced in the event of tearing. According to the American Journal of Infection Control, present-day glove perforation during operational procedures occurs most often during oral surgery and plastic surgery.