A story for the medical history books

In 1847, a surgery took place in Canada involving the use of anesthesia. While ether anesthesia was already being used for surgery in other countries, it was one the first major surgeries of its kind to be performed in this country. What’s surprising is that the surgery took place right here in Eaton Corner in the home of a man named William Stone. On March 20, 1847, Dr. Edward Dagge Worthington reported in the British American Journal of Medicine and Physical Science that he performed a surgery under the use anesthesia on March 10th of that same year.
It all started in 1839, when Stone, a young shoemaker, and his wife were settling down in Eaton Corner and starting their family. As their life began to take shape, Stone broke his ankle badly. At that time, doctors did not have access to the tools, resources, and medicine that we have today and they were not able to repair the ankle properly. See full story in the Wednesday, Oct. 23 edition of The Record.