PEDIATRICS Vol. 49 No. 6 June 1972, pp. 853
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SUCCESSFUL USE OF ELECTRIC SHOCK IN A LIFELESS CHILD AS REPORTED IN 1774

T. E. C. Jr. M.D.

The report given below, published in 1774, is the first, to my knowledge, about the use of electrotherapy for children.

ELECTRICITY RESTORED VITALITY

One part of our benevolent design is to manifest the possibility of recovery in the various instances of sudden death, where the vital powers are suspended, without any essential injury to the frame. This extraordinary relation of resuscitation also manifests the admirable powers of the electrical shock; which we would earnestly recommend in all cases of suspended animation.

Sophia Greenhill, on Thursday last, fell out of a one-pair-of-stairs window, and was taken up by a man to all appearance dead. The SURGEONS at the Middlesex Hoapital, and an APOTHECARY, declared that nothing could be done for the child.—Mr. Squires, tried the effects of electricity.—Twenty minutes elapsed before he could apply the shock, which he gave to various parts of the body in vain;—but upon transmitting a few shocks through the THORAX, he perceived a small pulsation; in a few minutes the child began to breathe with great difficulty, and after some time she vomited.—A kind of stupor, occasioned by the depression of the cranium, remained for several days, but, by the proper means, being used, her health was restored.1