Pin-Head Stretched

A medical question that arose in Washington last week was whether to let a pinheaded (microcephalic) little boy grow up to be an idiot or to take a chance of making him normal by the drastic operation of splitting and stretching his skull. Neuropsychiatrist Daniel Delehanty Vincent Stuart Jr. found that Alden Vorrath's mind & brain were normal for his two-and-a-half years. However, occasional convulsions seemed to indicate that the skull had hardened abnormally and was cramping the child's growing brain.

Doctors have not been able to prevent or cure microcephaly. A few bold surgeons tried splitting too solid skulls lengthwise from forehead to nape, and holding the halves slightly apart with temporary metal wedges. But baby heads grow most from front to rear. Such operations gave room for a short time only for the side-thrust of the growing brain, and most patients shortly died.

Assured of the child's normal intelligence, Surgeon Herbert Hermann Schoenfeld decided to cut the boy's skull across, from temple to temple. This Surgeon Schoenfeld did last week, wedging the halves apart by three-fifths of an inch, knowing that scar tissue would close the transverse gap if the child lived, hoping that the brain would grow forward & backward as Nature must have intended. Next day, convalescent Alden Vorrath's cheerfulness promised well for his future intelligence, well for Surgeon Schoenfeld's daring surgery.

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