Pregledni rad
AN EPISODE OF CHOLERA AT SAMPIERDARENA (ITALY) IN 1856
Angelo Stefanelli
Sažetak
In the incredible setting of a church in Sampierdarena, already used
on previous occasions as a quarantine hospital for those suffering from
plague, smallpox and similar illnesses, a young woman was examined
by dr. P. P. Parodi and diagnosed as having "eclampsia with albuminuria
following cholera morbus". Having survived the remedies typically
administred at the time, the first one unfortunately being bleeding,
in her seventh month of pregnancy she ceased to feel any foetal
movement, raising for the onlookers a real and serious moral question
concerning the survival ofthe unborn child. Exhorted by them to carry
out a ceaserian birth, the doctor tried to examine the subject in all
its various aspects: medical, legal, moral and religious. Finally, in view
of the risk it represented to the mother's survival, he decided not to
go ahead with the operation unless he had the support of fellow doctors.
Surprised by the contemplation he had given the matter, the onlookers
had a complete change of mind and at the same time, quite
unexpectedly, the young woman started to feel the foetus moving inside
her againl After having slowly regained her strength, Marina C.
finally left the church-hospital as a mother. There follow some considerations
by the author concerning the conduct of the doctor in
question, making use above all of a text by P. Arata who, during the
cholera epidemic, argued in favour of premature childbirth.
Ključne riječi
Cholera; history of medicine; l9th century; Italy
Hrčak ID:
102485
URI
Datum izdavanja:
23.12.2003.
Posjeta: 1.077 *