Thursday, October 27, 2011

Treasure Chest Thursday - Alma Seaver's 1962 Autopsy Report

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It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

This week's "Treasure" is my grandmother's autopsy report.  Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver died on 29 June 1962 in Leominster, Massachusetts (see Treasure Chest Thursday - Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver's Death Certificate).

An autopsy was performed on her body on 30 June 1962.  The autopsy report was in the family papers I received after my aunt, Geraldine (Seaver) Remley, died in 2007:


The transcription of the autopsy report is (hand-written comments in italics and blue):

Name:  SEAVER, Alma
Autopsy No.: LH A-62-29
Date: June 30, 1962
Age: 80
Hospital No.: 54906
Attending Physician: Edmund C. Meadows, M.D. & Paul R. VonEigen, M.D.
Body:  E.J. Sparling, Jr. M.D.
Autopsy: 14-1/2 hours post mortem
Head:  ___________________________

PROFESSIONAL ANATOMICAL DIAGNOSES

1.  Adenocarcinoma of gall bladder with infiltration of the
porta hepatis and extensive infiltration of the liver
and with peritoneal and retroperitoneal metastases
with partial bilateral hydronephrosis; ureteral obstruction
and common duct obstruction (high) with advanced laterum; (jaundice)
recent post-exploratory laparotomy state; chronic chole- (gall)
cystitis and cholelithiasis. (gall stones)

2.  Moderately advanced arteriosclerosis heart disease with
cardiac dilation.

3.  Pulmonary congestion and edema.

COMMENT:

It is apparent that this patient, with obstruction
of her common duct, due to carcinoma infiltration of the area,
died in hepatic failure with terminal aspiration.
(liver)
HJS/ev ..........................  ________________________ M.D.
............................................   H.J. Sparling, Jr. M.D.

The handwritten notes were made by someone other than the medical personnel - I think they were written by either my uncle, Edward Seaver, or my aunt, Geraldine Seaver when the report was provided to them and they asked for an explanation.

The cause of death in the Death Certificate was "Carcinoma of Gall Bladder," which is consistent with the autopsy report. 

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