Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 9, Number 50, DeMotte, Jasper County, 2 November 1939 — Appendicitis Fatalities Show Increased Rate [ARTICLE]

Appendicitis Fatalities Show Increased Rate

The depression is responsible for an increasing death rate among victims of acute appendicitis, according to two Cleveland doctors. Drs. F. R. Kelly and R. M. Watkins, observing the mounting death rate in a study of 2,000 consecutive cases at Women’s hospital here, report that appendicitis victims without funds hesitate to summon medical aid when an attack occurs and try to treat themselves. Half of the victims studied were hospitalized in the more prosperous years of 1930 to 1935; the rest between 1931 and 1936. The death rate among the first 1,000 was 9 per

cent; among the second 1,000, 23 per cent. The doctors reported their study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “During the depression years,” they wrote, “patients delayed operation 29 per cent longer than in better times. This surely increased the mortality rate. “If economic conditions improve, this delay on the patient’s part will be lessened, but in the meantime persons should be told to pocket their pride and seek medical aid regardless of their circumstances, if they notice pain anywhere in the abdominal region.”