TonMus

BUNGLED MEDICINE

Alban Berg (1885-1935)was bitten on the face by an insect. He mistrusted doctors and attempted surgery himself to remove the affected area, which he botched. The infected abscess could have been cured by sulpha drugs overnight had they existed at the time.

The cello virtuoso Emanuel Feuerman (1902-1942), could play the finale to Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto on the violin, playing it ‘cello-style’, sitting it on his knees. We would like to have seen and heard that! A chain smoker, he died from peritonitis, the result of poor medicine.

Josef Hassid was born in 1923. He was one of the youngest competitors at the very first Wieniawski Competition in 1935. In 1940 he preformed in London, made a few recordings before becoming increasingly neurotic, turning against his violin. He was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia. In 1943 he entered hospital, remaining there until his death in 1950, aged just 26, as the result of a brain operation. He is still remembered and admired, incredible after a such a short career.

Eddie Lang (1902-1933, born Salvatore Massaro), guitar playing partner of violinist Joe Venuti, died from complications following a tonsillectomy. Tragically his premature death was caused by a poorly performed operation, where he lost too much blood from what should have been routine. Bing Crosby was deeply disturbed by Lang’s death, not only because he suddenly lost one of his best friends and most talented sidemen, but because he had personally urged Lang to have the operation.

Bennie Moten (1894–1935) a noted American jazz pianist and band leader, born in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1929 when he recruited Count Basie, Walter Page and Oran ‘Hot Lips’ Page. By the mid-1930s the band was not only the finest in the region, but superior to many of the headline bands elsewhere. In 1935 the unit visited Chicago to audition for a residency at the Grand Terrace Ballroom. Before residency commenced, Moten underwent a tonsillectomy. The surgeon’s knife slipped, severed his jugular vein. Moten died. The band subsequently broke up, but later, regrouped under the leadership of Buster Smith and Basie. Later still the band became Basie’s.

The famous Spanish mezzo-contralto Conchita Supervia (1895-1940), a Rossini specialist died as a result of complications following the birth of a child, which was stillborn. She lasted just a few hours more.

The only other death relating to childbirth which we can find is that of Antonina Korsak, a pupil and the first wife of Paderewski. Korsak died 9 days after giving birth in October 1880.

Surprisingly, the number of deaths in childbirth is just two so far, for, until the twentieth century, childbirth has been exceptionally dangerous. Yet these both these occurred in recent times.