Novocaine in a Madhouse

A novocaine order handed last week to Maybelle Viall. drug dispenser of the Longview State Hospital for the Insane at Cincinnati, called for 2 grs. She tilled the order, sent the anesthetic to the tonsillectomy room where a row of inmates were to have their tonsils taken out.

Asthmatic Jennie Branham, 54, was first. As soon as the doctor injected the novocaine into her throat she wheezed and dropped. It was the asthma, attendants decided, as they took her away.

Anna McCullough, 45, was next. She slumped. So did Willie Shockley, 30. In 20 minutes the three mad patients were dead. Doctors raced to Dispenser Maybelle Viall, profanely demanding what had happened.

The instant the woman realized that instead of two grains of novocaine she had dispensed two grams, which is 15 times as potent, she became ''highly nervous." Though the coroner pronounced the three deaths accidental. Miss Viall, 35, kept wanting to kill herself.

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