Thumb in Neck

After operations and heavy X-ray treatments for cancer of the thyroid, Mrs. Leota Rogers, 21, seemed to be getting along well at a ranch near Moses Lake in central Washington. She was riding her own horses and helping around the house. But a fortnight ago, as she finished an afternoon snack, the carotid artery in the right side of her neck burst where it had been weakened by the cancer and treatment. Blood spurted halfway across the room. Mrs. Rogers took the first step toward saving her life by plugging the pencil-size hole with her finger.

The ranch manager carried her to his car and raced five miles into town. Her physician, Dr. Jerry Fairbanks, 31, found her near death upon arrival. A nurse and another doctor lent their thumbs in turn to close the wound while Dr. Fairbanks gave Mrs. Rogers both plasma and whole blood, telephoned Yakima for more blood, and arranged for an ambulance trip to Spokane. Relays of state troopers rushed the blood 110 miles from Yakima; then Dr. Fairbanks bundled his patient up for the equally long drive to Spokane. He kept his thumb on the artery all the way.

It was after midnight before a Spokane surgeon could finish tying off the artery above and below the break and, until he had done, Dr. Fairbanks' thumb was still in demand.

Last week Mrs. Rogers was sitting up in bed, and showed no ill effects from her highly unusual accident and loss of blood. Other arteries, including the left carotid, had taken over the job of supplying blood to the head.

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