Intubation Kit

Diphtheria, a disease mostly associated with childhood, is caused by a bacterial infection which results in the closing off of the airway. The airway becomes blocked by a thick gray mucous material making it difficult to breath. If the throat becomes completely blocked the person could suffocate and die. Diphtheria is not prevalent today, but before the development of a diphtheria antitoxin in 1890, a dsiphtheria vaccine, and antibiotics in the 1940’s it was a serious health crises in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

To help keep the throat open Dr. Joseph P. O’ Dwyer (1841-1898) developed a set of tubes to help keep the patient’s airway open and help them breathe.

Known familiarly as O’ Dwyer’s intubation tubes, sets came equipped with thin tubes made of metal or hard rubber of varying sizes, a scale for determining the correct size tube to be used, a mouth gag, an introducer for placing the tube down the throat, and an extractor, a forceps-like instrument for removing the tube.

Inserting the tubes was a two person procedure. A thread is passed through the hole in the tube. The child is held in an upright position by the assistant holding the head back. A mouth gag paced in the mouth, and the doctor inserts the tube down the throat. Once the tube is in place the introducer is removed.

This set of O' Dwyer tubes has a brown leather covered case with hinged lid; two metal clasps on the front. The interior is lined with light brown leather. The set contains: 7 hard rubber O' Dwyer tubes with metal obturators; One O' Dwyer's improved scale, an introducer; an intubation tube extractor; and one Denhardt's mouth gag. "ORIGINAL MANUFACTURER OF DR. JOSEPH O'DWYER'S INTUBATION INSTRUMENTS FOR THE LARYNX". A label on the interior lid reads "GEORGE EMROLD / MF'R of / SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS / 312 & 314 E 22 ST. NY."

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