Leeds Mercury – Wednesday 24 August 1938

Miner Dies after Accident and Operation

At the conclusion of a Mexborough inquest to-day on Laurence Lumb, a Thurnscoe miner, who died while undergoing an operation at the Montagu Hospital, after an accident at Hickleton Main Colliery, Mr. W. M. Starkey, secretary of the Yorkshire Mineworkers’ Association branch, said that the man’s parents, relatives, and members of the branch thanked the doctors who had done everything possible for Lumb.

Lumb sustained a fractured elbow when struck by a derailed tub in April, The bone did not unite, and returned to hospital last Saturday for an operation to remove piece of bone from the right leg and insert it at the point of fracture on the elbow. The Insertion was completed alter Lumb had been under an anaesthetic for minutes, when he had a fatal collapse.

Dr. Thomas Lindsay, of Mexborough, who made a postmortem examination, said the man was perfectly normal apart from his lungs.

Apparently during the operation, a clot of blood from the wound had become separated, and after passing through the heart, had blocked the arteries supplying the lungs. The lungs ceased to function, and death was due to cardiac failure as a result. was a risk always present at an operation.

A verdict of Accidental death was returned.