Thomas Fenton, a spirit dealer from Broughty Ferry, seemed to have it all. At 40 years of age, he had a successful business, was one year into his marriage to the love of his life and lived with her in their lovely wee house on Fort Street, Broughty Ferry. In the autumn of 1881, after much persuading from his new wife, decided it was time to hang up some pictures on the walls.
What should have been a simple task however, turned into a disaster. The picture he was holding slipped from his hands and crashed to the floor, sending shards of glass of varying sizes flying in all directions. Instinctively bending down to grab the picture as it fell from his hands, Thomas’ face bore the brunt of the flying glass.
As he and his wife inspected his face, they were both relieved to see that, other than a few small nicks to his skin, he had suffered no serious injuries. Or so they thought. As the days went on, Thomas noticed a minor irritation in one of his eyes. Giving no thought to it, and undoubtedly rubbing at it a lot, things began to get worse.
The more things worsened, the more Thomas tried to hide things. Weeks had passed, and it was now obvious to everyone that something wasn’t right. The pain was becoming unbearable to manage, so a doctor’s advice was finally sought. Upon inspection, it appeared that there was a tiny fragment of glass embedded in Thomas’ eye.
The doctor said he was surprised that Thomas could see at all out of the affected eye, to which Thomas replied he hadn’t seen out of that eye for over a week! The glass was removed, but the sight in Thomas’ eye could not be saved, and the eye was removed. If he had attended a doctor sooner, things may have been different – time can make all the difference in medical emergencies.
With this warning ringing in his head, Thomas wasted no time in seeking medical advice when only a few months later, at the end of 1881, he noticed his sight beginning to fail in his remaining eye. Arrangements were made for Thomas to attend surgery as soon as possible, with an appointment made for 30th January 1882.
Undoubtedly full of worry, as well as clinging to the hope of saving what was left of his failing sight, Thomas said goodbye to his wife, and took a good long look at her face, just in case the operation didn’t work, and he returned to her as a blind husband. 2 medical practitioners administered the chloroform in preparation for a surgery he hoped would change his life.
The operation did indeed change his life. Shortly after the anaesthesia was administered, the 40-year-old’s heart stopped beating. All efforts to bring him back to life failed and he was pronounced dead on the operating table. Probable cause of death? Heart failure.