LETTERS: ANESTHETIST HAD DISTINGUISHED ROLE

To the editor:

After reading the March 24 letters from the nurse anesthetists rebutting the March 21 letter of Dr. Stephen Stigers, I will ad my bit as to the credibility of the nurse anesthetist.

My sister, a 1944 graduate of DePaul Nursing School in St. Louis, was the first from that school to do advanced study in anesthesia. After doing this at three teaching hospitals, she worked at a large hospital in Ohio.

It was after she had passed away much later that I read a letter she had written to our mother in which she told only her that, at this Ohio facility, when the wives of some of the staff doctors were there for surgery, they would ask for her to give the anesthetic, though there were anesthesiologists with much longer service available. Also, she said that she always prayed continuously while working with a patient.

Later, after joining the Air Force and serving with distinction in several foreign countries, she was appointed head of the anesthesia department at the air base hospital in Homestead, Fla., where she passed away at age 46. She was Maj. Miriam D. Rolwing.

MARGARET ROLWING STRICKER

Charleston