View report page

19
There were in this last year two deaths as a result of pregnancy or
delivery. The maternal mortality was therefore 0.7.
The first of the fatalities was that of a woman of forty years of age
who during the two months before was twice admitted to hospital
suffering from ante-partum haemorrhage. About the time delivery
was expected she had another haemorrhage. She was admitted to
hospital where a stillborn infant was removed by Caesarean section. A
posterior complete placenta praevia was present. After a period of
recovery, in about nine hours her condition deteriorated and in spite of
all measures death took place. The other fatality was that of a woman
who had suffered from toxaemia of pregnancy at her two previous
pregnancies. Toxaemia was noticed in this third pregnancy at about
the eighteenth week. This got worse; when the foetus died at about
the sixth month labour was surgically induced. About ten days afterwards
there were marked signs of hypertension. The condition deteriorated
and death occurred some six weeks later.
Deaths from Accidents
Ten males and five females living in this district were killed on the
roads in 1954. In each of the accidents that occurred outside the
district, a motor vehicle was involved. The victim was in a motor car
in four instances, was on a motor cycle in two, was a pedestrian in two
and was a cyclist on one occasion. A motor vehicle was involved in
each of the four fatal accidents which occurred in the district. One
victim was in a car, one was a cyclist, another was a pedestrian and the
fourth was a child on a tricycle.
There were 41 other deaths from accidents. 21 of these were of
males, 20 were of females. The commonest cause was a fall of the
elderly; this accounted for the deaths of three men and ten women.
In all but two instances the fall occurred indoors. A fall in an elderly
person is especially serious because so commonly it results in a fractured
thigh with the risk of subsequent hypostatic pneumonia. There seems
to be a very great risk of the elderly person tripping over an object which
causes no inconvenience to younger persons. Falls accounted for the
deaths of two other adult males, one of them occurring at the place of
work. Four persons (three males including one boy of two years and
one female) lost their lives by drowning. Poisoning caused the deaths
of four (two males and two females). Coal gas poisoning caused five
(one male and four females) deaths; as contrasted with some previous
years, only one of the persons was over 75 years of age. Many elderly
persons live at home with only limited attention so that accidents of this
sort are very liable to occur. Another risk of the elderly is from burns.
This year two men died from burns, but neither was elderly.
The deaths of three children under the age of five years were due
to accidents. One was the result of a road accident (a child on a tricycle
run into by a car); one was by drowning; the third was an accidental
death under an anaesthetic given for an operation to be performed.
Much attention is given to the question of safety on the roads.
The accidents which occur in the homes tend to be ignored, in spite of
the tact that in this country over the last ten years 57,413 persons have