Tyroid Crisis and the Law

To the Editor:— The case reported by Dr. Ficarra (208:695, 1969), raises several questions which were not answered by his comments. It is perfectly true that the possibility of a thyroid crisis is something which should not be neglected in every patient who has thyroid surgery. Its occurrence is exceedingly rare, however, when the patient has been properly prepared for surgery by the preoperative administration of iodine. It was not stated in the case history whether this patient had been prepared with iodine or not. It was apparent from the statement that cardiac massage was performed during the second operative procedure and that a cardiac arrest had occurred. This raises the possibility that the subsequent course after the operation and the patient's death were due to irreversible brain damage which took place during the period of cardiac arrest, rather than to a thyroid crisis. It is true that the